Wayne Metsch A Different Journey

Welcome to our CaringBridge website.  You can learn about Wayne’s progress here, and if you like, share words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
On February 3, 2021 Wayne should be admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital to prepare for and undergo a stem cell transplant. The goal of the transplant is to cure him of myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow failure disorder which was identified in November, 2019.  As Wayne describes it, if all goes as planned, he will be made quite ill by week of intense chemotherapy that eliminates his defective bone marrow cells. After the transplant,  he will gradually grow his donor’s healthy bone marrow cells and regain his health.  He will be hospitalized for at least a month, and then receive outpatient treatment two to five times weekly for as long as needed, roughly two more months. 
Much of the timeline will depend upon how rapidly the transplant grows, whether he is able to avoid infection while his immune system is compromised, and the extent to which his transplant rejects the rest of his body (graft versus host disease).  Everyone’s transplant experience is unique.  While we would prefer a more personal way of sharing information as this journey unfolds, we hope that this website will be an efficient start to many conversations.