The Diagnosis...

December 23, 2010. Dr. D. Day.... hee hee.. sorry, I couldn't resist. Well, this is how it all went down. There I am, hurrying up and NOT waiting very well, when I go to my appointment with FULL expectation that the results from Stanford have not been received. My parents, the lovely people that they are, met me at MSTI to meet with the doctor. This meeting was not going to be cancelled even without results because Dr. D. was headed out the door for a well-deserved vaca the next week and he wanted to check on me and make sure all was well before he vamoosed.
We get there, we sit down, Dr. D. has a morose face and explains that the results DID come back and I have Primary Myelofibrosis. Now, keep in mind that when I talked to the nurse earlier in the week in my "impatient waiting period" she had told me that he suspected this disease and THAT is why he sent my marrow to Stanford. However, my parents knew this not. All was well tho, my mother is tough and I think my father was asleep...jk. Dr. D. went on to explain exactly what Primary Myelofibrosis is and how we fix me.
Primary Myelofibrosis - is a disorder of the bone marrow. It is currently classified as a myeloproliferative disease in which the proliferation of an abnormal type of bone marrow stem cell results in fibrosis, or the replacement of the marrow with collagenous connective tissue fibers.^[1] In English, that means that there is an abnormal amount of scar tissue in my bone marrow. I'm an overachiever. I make everything in excess. :)
This cancer is a very RARE cancer and usually seen in patients over the age of 50.. so, either my parents aren't telling us something, or this is a surprising case in someone my age. Dr. D. even said that he was surprised. It's uncommon in general but REALLY uncommon in my age group... I like to think of myself as a trend setter, but this one you guys can just ignore... no need to join this group. :)
With that, the only known CURE, is a bone marrow transplant. Otherwise, they can only treat symptoms and once it starts moving right along, things get worse and the life expectancy isn't all that long (keep in mind most studies are done with "the older crowd"), but in any case, with the speed things can get bad, the "recorded" average of life expectancy once your symptoms present themselves is 5 years. That didn't work for me, so I opted for the transplant... I like to think of myself as wise as well. :)
So, here we are on our path to a transplant.... Don't go away, I'll be back tomorrow. :)