October 31, 2009 10:30 PM

35 to 40%!

That's what the doctor said a year ago when I asked her directly what my chances were to survive my leukemia. That estimate also came with a caveat - it assumed that they could locate a bone marrow donor for me! Otherwise, the percentage plunged to a very slim 5%! Nothing on Halloween could be as scary as that!

That was at the conclusion of my doctor's appointment. During the time in her office she stated that my treatment would begin with a 7 and 3 day regimen of chemotherapy. Seven days of cytarabine(24 hours a day) with the first three days including an injection of doxorubicine as well. Then we would wait for 7 days to have a bone marrow biopsy and, depending upon the results, the following would happen - if the leukemia were still present, I would immediately begin a 5 and 2 day regimen of chemo consisting of the same 2 drugs and stay in the hospital another month, if no leukemia was found, I would stay in the hospital about another 2 weeks until my counts returned to normal. After that, everything depended upon finding a bone marrow donor. So the remainder of the schedule was somewhat up in the air.

So, I was looking forward to a minimum of a month in the hospital. Since I was "feeling fine", the doctor said that I could go home and enjoy the weekend and look to enter the hospital on Monday or Tuesday. I was kind of surprised by how fast they were moving but the doctor said that in a very few weeks I wouldn't be "feeling fine". There was certainly nothing to be gained by waiting - that's for sure!

I did ask why it was necessary to go through all this if a blood transfusion would appear to bring me back to "good health" and she said that that was only a temporary fix. In the long term, blood transfusions would not achieve that goal as the affects of the disease grew worse. Since I didn't need to enter the hospital for a few days, I could kind of put everything aside and continue on with my life "as usual". And, that is what I did.

We had plans for Saturday night(a night with friends) which we kept and we went to church on Sunday. It would be my last Sunday for over a year. When I go back is still up in the air.

So, a year ago my weekend was like that song "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile...."

Bob