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Courtney’s Story

Site created on May 3, 2023

Courtney Mastin-

Also known as a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a best friend, a full-time clinical supervisor, and now...a patient. Courtney has been and is currently battling a rare blood disorder called Aplastic Anemia. Aplastic Anemia is a blood condition that occurs when the bone marrow cannot make enough red blood cells for the body. Unfortunately, Courtney has completed multiple different treatment methods with no success in battling the blood disorder. Courtney is now faced with needing a bone marrow transplant.

Fortunately, a bone marrow donor match has been found! That news is amazing and such a blessing but for Courtney that means that she has a very long road ahead of her. In the upcoming weeks, she will have another PICC line placed, attend many hours of education, and on May 31st she will be admitted to the hospital to prepare her body for and then to receive a bone marrow transplant. The bone marrow transplant process is a rigorous one, and unfortunately requires her to be admitted to the hospital for quite some time.

Upon admission to the hospital on May 31st Courtney will receive medications that are considered "conditioning" medications for approximately 10 days. This "conditioning" process makes room for new cells to grow in the bone marrow (YAY) but simultaneously weakens the immune system (not so YAY). The side effects of this process will be very hard for Courtney and although she's had a taste of this from when she had her hATG infusion last year, it will be amplified by ten this time around. These side effects ultimately make Courtney feel like shit and in a deep dark hole to which her body constantly aches (a deep bone ache), she will be nauseous 24/7, experience debilitating headaches that will come and go, she will develop mouth sores making it hard for her to swallow, her, let alone the pure exhaustion.

Following that grueling 10 days comes the bone marrow transplant! Once the new cells are in her and reach her marrow the goal is that her body will take those cells and start to grow red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. This process is called "engraftment" and takes 2-6 weeks. Courtney will still be experiencing the side effects carried over from the "conditioning" stage, but the process in itself will not add any new side effects.

The final inpatient portion is the "recovery" process to which it must be confirmed that the "engraftment" process worked and her body is tolerating it. The "recovery" process can take a couple of weeks to many weeks. The reason it can take so long is her immune system will be very weak so she will be taking medications and precautions to prevent any infections. Throughout this "recovery" process Courtney will still have side effects from the "conditioning" process but they hopefully will be subsiding. What will be the worst part of this process is the time that Courtney will have to be in the hospital, which ranges in total from 1-3 months. She will start to feel better but yet she will not be able to be discharged until she meets certain criteria.

Unfortunately, discharge is not the end of this process.... once she meets the criteria to be discharged from the hospital she will be very weak, tired, immunocompromised, and will be unable to work for an unknown period of time. She will continue to have to take medications to prevent infections as well as medications to prevent the transplanted bone marrow from being attacked by her body. Overall after discharge from the hospital, she will have yet a 9 months to a year of recovery.

The goal of this site is to keep all updated on Courtney's journey so that the interactions you have with her do not have to be focused on updates but rather can be focused on bringing her companionship, laughter, and support.

The second goal is to allow this to be a place to share what she (and her family) need.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Kayla Meints — Jul 18, 2023

Courtney has had some very rough couple of days...

She is constantly having headaches, that are more than a headache and causing her to be sensitive to light and making it hard to function.

On top of that she has felt just very fatigued.

She has had to receive fluids due to her sodium being low and her kidneys and liver taking a hit from her meds.

The headaches continued and so a CT of her head was obtained, that was relatively normal but they will review results on Thursday.

Her hemoglobin was very low today at 6 (normal is 13 ) so she also got some blood.

Courtney also has not been able to sleep more than 3 hours at night, which is not helping her headaches.

For now she is trying to rest and recoup but hopefully there will more of a plan to manage her current symptoms come Thursday.

More to come, she's happy to be home, and grateful for all the help, but the symptom management is wearing on her, so keep those positive and healing thoughts and vibes coming her way!

Read More of the journal titled "+21 Post Transplant "

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