Rodney Curtis

Since lots of you have asked about the stem cell process or the bone marrow process and have had some confusion about the day, here’s your pal Dr. Rodney to explain it all in a primer. Stem cell or bone marrow, they’re used interchangeably these days. At no point is any of my brother’s marrow extracted from his bones.

Here is what’s happening as I approach my new birthday on Friday. My body is being wracked with lots of different chemicals in order to pound my forces into submission. Use any war analogy you wish. The most important thing they’re going for is the stuff that produces my blood, my bone marrow. Other transplants are different, obviously. If you’re in for a kidney transplant they handle things differently. The same is true for a full cranial transplant.

My marrow and blood is healthy right now; it’s in remission. But there’s a chance the leukemia could come back. That’s what this is all about. We want to dramatically reduce the chance anything will come back. That’s why they call it The Cure.

Okay, so what actually happens? While they’ve been bombarding me they’ve been doing the opposite to my brother Scott. They are giving him injections of neupogen which increases his production of white blood cells. Each day this week he has to take the thousand-dollar-a-day syringe and give himself a shot. No one looks forward to neupogen and in some people it makes your bones feel like they’re exploding from within. Hopefully he won’t pull the plug on this project due to pain, there are some fabulous pain medications that work. Sorry Scott, I don’t think this qualifies you for medical marijuana just yet, although let’s see what the City of Ferndale voted last night.

This Friday he will report to duty on the 10th floor, just a few steps away from my room. They’ll start an IV going in one of his arms, thread the tube through a machine and pump the blood back into his other arm. But that machine in the middle will be extracting his stem cells which are the worker bees who want to create good, solid, warm blood.

It will take about four hours for this to unfold and when it’s complete he’s free to go home. They then take that bag and bring it to me, hot and steamy, and just hang it up on my IV pole and slurp, slurp, slurp like a baby vampire I go.

Since we carry the exact same 10 out of 10 genetic markers that they look for, our genes are a perfect match. But that doesn’t mean his cells won’t reject me. Yeah, that’s weird; in this procedure the new body of cells can reject the older, established cells there. It’s called Graft Vs. Host Disease and you supposedly want a little bit of brotherly squabbling, but not a full out Hatfields vs. McCoys.

This potential battle will be omnipresent for months or even up to a year. In the meantime, post stem cell transfer, I’ll need to be very germophobic and avoid crowds and even some crazy things like not cook my own food or go outside without a mask. That’s the future. Right now I just need to concentrate on dealing with my body as it prepares for my brother’s precious gift of life.

I hope that clears things up.

QUICK UPDATE:

I spoke with my brother after posting this blog and already the neupogen is hammering him. He’s a part-time fire fighter and isn’t sure if he’ll be able to go out on some runs. He wants to though, pain and all. That kind of defines a true hero doesn’t it?