Green Light, Go

So he got the call from Dr. Imus with the decision -- they will start him on a broad spectrum anti-fungal drug today (many steps to get that order all the way to Jon, but it will happen) and they will stay on schedule.  His transplant will be on March 24. We need to be within an hour of Hopkins starting on March 14. They don't have housing for us yet, but that's because our schedule has been so fuzzy.

-*-*-*-*-*  (that means that you now know everything that matters, the rest is optional bedtime reading)

For those who may not have as much background in bone marrow transplants, here is the general scheme.  They kill all the old white blood cells with a big dose of chemo (that was Sunday) and then he gives himself daily shots of something that stimulates the growth of new stem cells. That goes on for about 8 days. Then they test to see if he has enough to collect.  When he does, they collect a lot of stem cells. Then another whomping dose of chemo to kill off all the blood cells.  On Day Zero, that's the transplant day, they give back the stem cells they have frozen. These stem cells will gradually grow back into all the kinds of blood, and they will have the smallest possible amount of cancer in them. It will still be detectable, or it was last time, but it will be knocked back to a level that is much less hazardous.  Then it will take about two or three weeks for all his blood counts to come back up. There will be various complications and remedies along the way, and he will need to be monitored closely, day and night. 

Now that I know there is a schedule, I can start to nail down some plans. We have one friend near Baltimore who is generously planning to stay clear of all germs so that she can be one of the few who can give me a break.  I am hoping that Benjamin will be able to come up to give me a break in the first days, before Jon starts to feel really terrible.  And then I am hoping that Rebecca can come up on what may be the last weekend of Baltimore time. It is a lot to ask, asking people to stay away from all possible colds and covid, just so I can come back to the farm to check in and reassure myself that everything is on track. But he is supposed to have just one caregiver, and having substitutes is a risky enterprise.  The last time we did this we had the incredible luxury of having Anna in Baltimore because she was in school, and there was no covid. I left them for days at a time. This time will be harder.

For the farmers amongst us, this schedule is about as close to the edge as we wanted to go.  I will miss most of the onion planting and probably the potato planting and also the first set of seeds that go in the ground. I will miss all the greenhouse work but I rarely do that anymore, except to stay in touch. We have skilled, experienced people here who can do all the work of late March and early April. I usually do have a role to play, getting it all underway, and we will see how it all unfolds, but it will be a good exercise for all of us.  This is how you learn just how strong your organization really is.  

The bigger challenge is having Jon out of the picture -- he fixes all the broken stuff, or arranges to have it fixed. He does all the research and buys all the parts. When the plumbing breaks, he fixes it immediately. This will be the true test of our capacity to solve problems. I am guessing Jon will be on the phone with farm people a lot.

This is last night at our dinner table.  Mika eating mushed up peas, with great enthusiasm.