H-town

We went to class on Monday up at Hackensack for "Patients and Caregivers' receiving bone marrow/stem cell transplants. The class was about 4 hours in length, and we really could have gotten by with the one hour class. There were probably about 20 people in total... most were in combinations, of caregiver + patient, so it was interesting to hear a little bit of everyone else's perspective. Some folks really hadn't read up on the process, so that really adds to the length of the class. After class, we met with one of the coordinators for another hour or so. Going up to Hackensack, I could tell we were both a bit nervous about it. She's really gotten comfortable with St Barnabas and the new place just seemed so foreign. We didn't really know where we were going, and it seemed like there was a lot going on.
 
We went back again on Tuesday morning for a meeting with her primary doctor performing the procedure. He went through some of the specific info, and we feel good about moving forward. The potential donor is a 9 out of 10 match (somewhere around 7 out of 10 is the minimal criteria and 10 out of 10 is perfect match). Given Anna's condition it doesn't make sense to wait around for a 10 out of 10 match, as that may never happen... and the longer they wait, the more likely it is her Leukemia will come back... and the more it comes back, the tougher it is to treat. The difference between a 9 out of 10 and 10 out of 10, means that she'll likely have a little harder time with Host versus Graft disease (where her body fights the new stuff). With all of the info on the table, this is the right course of action so we move forward. The doctor is proceeding to contact the donor center and is requesting some dates in mid-April. So, we're likely to have her admitted on April 11th, if all goes well.
 
After the first appointment, we arranged for a brief tour of the floor where she'll recover. This was mainly just to get more comfortable with everything. Given Monday was a bit dizzying, we thought it would be a good idea to check it out. In general, the more we know and see, the better we feel about everything. Given her comfort with the nurses and facilities at St Barnabas, we're really trying to minimize the apprehension about going to the new place. The facility is really nice. Everyone has their own private rooms, and they seem reasonably spacious (my first apartment in the city was smaller). They really encourage the patients to walk and to get in some exercise, so they have a nice little exercise room. I think we were both really happy to see everything, and we're much more comfortable now after the last couple of days. It still feels surreal at times, but I suspect that will never go away.
 
After that we spoke with another representative for about an hour. I think they called it psychosocial, or something like that... she was mainly worried about logistics at home (ie. do we have coverage for TJ, will we have someone who can be with Anna), as well as her psychological well being. It was a good appointment and I think we both felt better after. We had to walk through the story from the beginning, which is always a bit emotional, but overall was very helpful.
 
After that, we were back home... she has another checkup on Thursday with the primary Oncologist, and then some further follow up. We should have confirmation of the dates in another couple weeks, but that's the likely plan at this point...