[Nina van Nunen]

Finally BMT day has arrived... I have been in the University Hospital of Leiden, the Netherlands for the past week, receiving heavy dosages of Chemo through a "subclavia catheter" under my collarbone, as well as oral dosages of chemo. Together with that I am taking heavy antibiotics in anticipation of my lowered immune system and steroids (prednison). So far so good. I handled the side effects of the chemo extremely well with very little discomfort,except for diarree and short bouts of nausea. I then received four days of ATG which went extremely well, considering how sick I was from the ATG last year... I am now in isolation awaiting the transplant later today. I am so unbelievably fortunate to have my sister as my donor. Liesel (my sister) donated her first round of stemcells yesterday during a 6 hour "marathon". Because she is a related donor and a very good match,I am not receiving radio therapy, therefore they apparantly need to draw another batch of stemcells from her today. So as soon as that is done, gone through the lab for prepration, I will receive the transplant later this afternoon...
I trust that this will go well and I am very positive and I am feeling strong and energetic. Ready for it all... After all, I don't think there is a better Valentine's gift than receiving a fighting chance to reclaim your life...
So, with that positive note I am going into today filled with hope and faith that I will get through the next step coming out "fighting fit"...
It is so great to be able to share one's feelings on this forum, specially as one can feel pretty isolated in a non English speaking country, facing a fairly serious procedure without being able to tap into a local English speaking support group. Thank you for this wonderful forum. I will keep you posted as to how it is going. In the meantime. I hope that you will all have a great valentines day, I know mine will turn out just great... Just remember, that a positive attitude is half the battle won...