Fighting, suffering, and managing - the verbs of disease

Boxley here: It's funny how we MANAGE diabetes, SUFFER heart attacks, and FIGHT cancer. I now understand now why you consider cancer to be a fight. There are big battles, explosions, lulls, victories, counter-attacks, and lots of waiting.

Drew's cancer attacked again this week, only 11 days after the last drop of chemo this round. We are now in a race, as his doctor describes it, to get a transplant of bone marrow or stem cells as quickly as possible. We are waiting now for word on the matching of his siblings (better than 50/50) or a match with an unrelated donor (reasonable) or the match of cord blood (complicated). We are also waiting on one sibling to give birth (any day) and another to learn if she has twins coming in November (see future ultrasound posting when it arrives). And we are waiting to see if the chemo works this time, and for how long. Fighting, and waiting.

We have suffered at least one explosion. Imagine during this process someone calling my wife and saying, "er, about telling you that Duke is approved for your insurance? Well, we were kidding." It didn't go quite that way, but the details don't matter. The explosion that occurred reverberated through the halls of at least one major health insurer (and one computer company) before the error was cleared up and we are still on schedule.

Our plan remains to get a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible for Drew - maybe as early as the first of May. We will keep you informed.

Many have asked about being a donor. See the link to the National Bone Marrow Donor site on the right side of our blog's home page. Registering is painless, getting matched is easier than giving blood, and your small chance of saving a life someday would be memorable. Some places are free, and some ask for a small donation to cover costs. You probably couldn't do it in time for Drew this round, but you never know what might happen.