Today I chat with my friend and fellow cancer mom Jenna about carrying her son through a 42 day bone marrow transplant this past summer. This episode is really important for so many reasons, BMT is a big and daunting procedure that so many of our families go through - so many parents are in complete isolation with their children for weeks and months, there are so many layers, so many challenges - we could talk about the isolation alone for 20 episodes - it’s just such a consuming and encompassing part of treatment. Jenna does a brilliant job of sharing their experience with so much accuracy, and she does it so families who have been through BMT or are going through BMT feel seen, and know that despite the intense isolation - they are not alone.

But before we get to Jenna, I’m going to give you a little background on Jenna’s son Hendrix to set the stage.

Hendrix was 3 when he was dx with B cell ALL. He endured the very long and intense treatment ALL requires - chemo, lumbar punctures, countless procedures - right when he started maintenance, Hendrix went into severe diabetic ketoacidosis, almost losing his life. This led to a type 1 diabetes diagnosis to his already intense and wildly unfair leukaemia diagnosis.

And then, going into his 6th round of maintenance, Hendrix relapsed, forcing him to battle a second time, now as a type one diabetic. Relapse treatment was extremely challenging, Hendrix became chemo resistant and his cancer was still present even after his re-induction. He qualified for Car T therapy, which was also a long and VERY hard road, and unfortunately didn’t work as well, leaving a bone marrow transplant as the only option left. He did immunotherapy and spent seven months getting into remission for transplant, which miraculously worked, and that is where our conversation today with Jenna, Hendrix’s mom, begins.

As someone who didn’t go through BMT with my child, this was part educational, part enlightening and honestly just left me pretty astonished at Jenna’s ability to disassociate, which you’ll hear us talk about as the main strategy she used to endure this really trying, really challenging experience.

For any family going into BMT, Jenna’s story will be a reference and for any family who’s done BMT, Jenna’s story will be a recognition for what you did to support your child through one of the most harrowing experiences I think we can go through in oncology treatment.

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