Proceed

Back to the hospital today to get the results of the scan which was done on Wednesday. She actually got to see Prof Joshua today who was back from 2 months overseas - he wasnt seeing any patients but asked specifically to see Shanean

The scan is not clear - similar to before, some of the tumours have responded and some havent and kept growing.

Even though this has happened, they will be going ahead with the transplant anyway as there are no other real options. So here is the timetable for the next few weeks

1. Back to hospital on the 27th/28th June
2. Chemo for 1 week ("conditioning chemo" for the transplant)
3. Radiation for 3 days - they hope this will get the non-responsive bits
4. Christene's cells will be harvested on the 6th July
5. Christene's cells transplanted into Shanean

After the transplant Shanean will crash and be at zero for a long time (the record so far is around 25 days) during this time the dreaded mucositis (mouths sores) will be back and she will get quite sick

After this time the cells should "graft". This is when graft vs host disease is possible - whilst this can be life threatening (its the new cells rejecting her body), a mild dose is actually good as it attacks the cancer cells (as well as the good cells).

So a big process ahead, with at least the next 10 days with nothing major to do. Christene and Jannie (her dad) arrive from South Africa on Tuesday...