Next Steps

Hi all, we have had quite a few trying days here and are finally getting our heads around this. Now that the first rounds of crying is over we have refocused ourselves on the mission ahead. The goal here is still the same: a cure for the cancer. The next step is another transplant. This time from a matching donor. We fortunately have that donor match already, Pam's brother Doug is a match. That is very fortunate for us and avoids a large search and wasted time. The transplant is called an Allogenic Bone Marrow Transplant, and will take place at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in conjunction with the Cotton Norris Cancer Center. Dr. Meehan is heading the procedure, and we have already met with him.

Pam will have a Biopsy performed on one of the nodules in her lung to make sure there that it is indeed Hodgkins disease and is not an infection in her lungs. They need to be very certain of this as an infection in her body during the transplant process could be deadly. They will once again be wipng her immune system down to zero and then introducing her brothers to go and try to get the cancer. Unfortunately with this procedure there are quite a few side effects. The biggest one is "graph vs. host" disease. This is when Dougs immune system starts to attack everything that it doesn't recognize. They will be watching this closely as it is inevitable, and they can control it with medications as much as possible. The trick is to get some, but not too much.

Pam will have the biopsy next week and a few other tests on her heart and lungs as well. They will then determine whether or not she has an infection and plan the course of action based on that. They will be giving her a few weeks of chemotherapy up here at VCCM in Colchester before they perform the transplant. They want to try and reduce the cancer mass at much as possible before performing the transplant. Pam will be at DHMC for about 3 weeks once the procedure starts. That is about all we know right know.

We are obviously scared, and hopeful at this time. We still are certain that we can lick this thing once and for all. Thank you all so much for all of your continued support during these difficult times. In the meantime we are just enjoying everyday as much as possible: playing with our kids, going for walks and short hikes, apple picking, enjoying being with friends and neighbors. These are truly the best gifts and we are appreciative of all of them.
We will try to keep you updated as we learn anything new. Shoot us an email or stop by while everyone is feeling good right now!
Lots of Love, Troy and Pam.

Important News

Hi everyone-
Yesterday I had my PET scan and follow-up. We've kept this to ourselves, visualizing us announcing to the world our "free and clear" of cancer outcome. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
The cancer is still there. There's a couple of new hot spots in the same area it's been. What that means is we move forward to our next course of treatment which is a bone marrow transplant. During these past six+ weeks, we (my doctors and us) have been moving forward with some things just in case this plan B needed to happen. One of those things was blood matching my sisters and brother to see if they would be a match. With great luck, we found out my brother was my match. That will allow us to move forward much more quickly than if we needed to begin a search now and/or open our search to a universal search (could be months). We do not have details at this point. We have a lot to learn and a lot that is being worked out. The transplant will happen in the next four to six weeks. Different from the stem cell transplant, the recovery from this would be a minimum of five+ months, and even up to 3-5 yrs. with post stuff. Therefore, once again, I'll be putting my teaching on hold this year.
I'm not quite ready to talk about it more this week face to face. But hugs and smiles certainly are ok! I am feeling pretty fragile and need to dig in deep again to find that inner strength, which I know I do have....it just needs a bit more time to surface.
Thanks in advance, because I know all that love and belief and faith is following me!
Pam