I started writing The Plog as a personal journal in May 2007, just after relapsing from a one-year remission of acute leukemia. Keeping a journal was a way to pass the time during my subsequent 26-day hospital stay. Recording my thoughts, feelings, symptoms and (mostly) misadventures was therapeutic, too.
The Plog is shorthand for Patricia's/Patty's log. It also rhymes with "slog," which puts one in mind of a tediously slow and difficult journey.
I'm entering the hospital once again on August 29th to continue my journey. I hope to post daily in The Plog, now appearing here as a weblog. Marty may step in as guest contributor from time to time, particularly if the slog bogs me down.
Stay tuned.
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Adirondack Mountains, Feb. 2007
Tale of a Cord Blood Transplantee Who Relapses and Goes on to Have a Matched Unrelated-Donor Transplant
The Weight
Adirondack Mountains, Feb. 2007
ABOUT ME
In March 2006, I was diagnosed with a blood cancer called Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). Life as I knew it came to a crashing halt. After enduring a month in the hospital where I received intense chemotherapy, I was declared "in remission." I had three additional treatments and remained cancer-free until May 2007, when I relapsed.
My only shot at survival was to have a stem cell transplant. However, my brothers' immune markers didn't match mine, and an international search of bone marrow registries found no perfect matches. A transplant using the blood from two umbilical cords was recommended. I grasped at this straw in September 2007. It seemed to work.
This blog tells the story of my transplant and recovery, replete with outrageous slings and arrows. The expression "blood is thicker than water" has new meaning for me. I remained alive due to the blood of strangers, two of them, both male. Thanks guys.
The plot thickened when I relapsed 19 months into my new remission and had to go through the same rigamarole once more. This time, I received stem cells from a matched adult donor who was identified last go round but didn't fit into the necessary time frame. Charles Dickens could have fun with this, the stuff of pulp fiction.
I remain in remission 4 years later. My donor keeps leukemic cells in check but finds interesting ways to attack my body. Chronic graft versus host disease keeps me firmly entrenched in the medical world. And so it goes.
My only shot at survival was to have a stem cell transplant. However, my brothers' immune markers didn't match mine, and an international search of bone marrow registries found no perfect matches. A transplant using the blood from two umbilical cords was recommended. I grasped at this straw in September 2007. It seemed to work.
This blog tells the story of my transplant and recovery, replete with outrageous slings and arrows. The expression "blood is thicker than water" has new meaning for me. I remained alive due to the blood of strangers, two of them, both male. Thanks guys.
The plot thickened when I relapsed 19 months into my new remission and had to go through the same rigamarole once more. This time, I received stem cells from a matched adult donor who was identified last go round but didn't fit into the necessary time frame. Charles Dickens could have fun with this, the stuff of pulp fiction.
I remain in remission 4 years later. My donor keeps leukemic cells in check but finds interesting ways to attack my body. Chronic graft versus host disease keeps me firmly entrenched in the medical world. And so it goes.
13 comments:
We'll all be plogging with you and will try to keep Marty from snogging too much Oban.
Just keep plogging along! We're all here for you!
Hi Patty, I hope your plog is therapeutic for you and I look forward to following your progress through it. I wish you a speedy recovery. Take care!! (oh yeah....exercise and eat)
Patricia,
We like the blog/plog/slog. Nice graphics too. I plan to use it with my first grade student teaching stint(word chunks;consonant blends;rhyming). Godspeed. We love you guys.
Love the photo- I'll be checking your 'plog' (love that!) and thinking of you!
Patty, if your's is a plog, mine will be a mog in sod. Glad you're working out the kinks before I take you on as my editor. Will be thinking of you in the coming weeks and look forward to your reports from the track. xo
Hi Patty,
You have been and will be in our thoughts and prayers as you continue on your journey. We wish you comfort and a speedy recovery.
Hi Pat, I love your blog where you'll write about slogs - or even your dogs...and I'm wishing that soon you'll be out for a jog through the morning fog after which you'll consider joining me for a celebratory glass of grog?
Hi Patty,
We just got back from a short trip and behold - a Plog! That picture we took in the Adirondacks is a near perfect metaphor. Next summer I want to take a picture of you holding a pea! Hang in there. We're with you all the way!
-Ken
Patty:
Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Irma & John.
are you plogged in yet?
just imagine the moon, a perfect spherical body seemingly suspended in space, now as the lower parts turn blue the white sunlight on the top is pronounced. After an hour the whole moon has become a reddish brown..
that is what we saw the other night watching the lunar eclipse from Waiheke Island. Cheering for you from down under - you just keep plogging along ye hear?
silken hugs
Dianne
Patty,
First of all kick some cancer butt. I will hopefully be in the DFCI/B&W transplant unit and was going to email you on the LLS discussion board when I came upon your "plog" today. Was actually on the B&W 6th floor yesterday speaking with some family/caregivers about their experience at B&W. Would have tried to smuggle in some breakfast goodies if I had known you were in need. Will be at DFCI next week for a BMB. Let me know what you would like and I will drop some by.
My email address is on my LLS discussion board profile.
profile name - REO
I am more of a lurker on that board but visit it daily, if not multiple times a day.
Would love to draw from your experience as I am a few months behind. Hopefully we can get my CLL/SLL under control and get to an allo transplant with minimal disease. The donor search DFCI did identified (3) 11/12 matches thus far. Have asked about Cord Blood Transplant but they don't seem to want to go that route. Not sure why.
BEST OF LUCK. If you need anything from the Boston area let me know and I will be glad to help in any way I can.
Ron
Keeping you in our prayers. Talk in EG tonight around teacher strike. The boys have 1+ more days of summer. Yank loss today unfortunately, but will probably be back and forth right until the end. Hope you get your hot java one of these mornings!
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