9/10 prep week

It’s becoming more real this week. The final tests have been done last week. Chemo starts on Thursday, and continues for three days. Sunday and Monday are rest days, but the Tuesday next week (sept 18th) is the big day when the engineered cells go in. I’m having a data review with the team to square things away before we put any medicine inside me in an hour or so.

It’s hard to describe my headspace at the moment. I’m thrilled to have a chance to clear some leukemia that doesn’t involve more serious chemo, but I’m also a little nervous and little scared. Even though the transplant was statistically more risky than this, it was also more honed and more practiced. CAR-t therapy, still being in trials, makes me feel more vulnerable and in that way is more scary. I really can’t grasp how I’ll feel once the CAR cells start killing leukemia. Like, a cold bad, or a flu bad? And it seems, I “wait” around for the 14 days after treatment--well still coming in for check-ups every day but most of my time will be at hom3--for a fever to start. Once the fever hits, then I need to get to the hospital asap so we can get on top of anything if the fever/infection/cytokine release syndrome escalates. Sitting around for something bad to happen, is far from fun or chill.  There’s a ⅓ chance that a hospital visit won’t be part of my experience, so it’s not guaranteed, but for some reason I feel like it will happen to me. We’ll see.

In non-healthcare world, today is the 2 year anniversary for Briana and me. We spent this last weekend, at the Biz Point house relaxing, cooking delicious seafood dinners, doing a small hike in Deception Pass State Park (the same park where our wedding was at Cornet Bay) and playing with Alpen. It was relaxing, and with the rain coming in, felt like the transition to fall is upon us which I welcomed after a hot summer. All for now, I need to make my Dr. appointment. A Lovell picture tradition with a cake that says “2” below.