09/27/2025
Bone marrow transplant. My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. The final phase in my treatment for brain cancer was a bone marrow transplant which meant at least 30 days in a very secure lock down floor in the hospital–no visitors because patients are so vulnerable. The idea is to give a chemo treatment that activated the bone marrow to leach stem cells into the blood stream, then extract millions of them, then give a very ruthless chemo to kill everything in the body including any remnants of cancer, then infuse the stem cells back in so they could rebuild the body. Natalie is protective and persuasive–despite it being a very isolated floor during the early stages of a pandemic, she talked them into letting her stay with me on the condition she could not leave my room–for a month!! She is amazing! The 8 sessions of chemo was a walk in the park compared to this one, it was brutal. My tongue shed the entire surface (super gross!), I was nauseous and incontinent. The incontinence gave me the most anxiety and stress–it was awful. The chemo drug was so terrible, they told Natalie not to touch me. I was sweaty one night so she rubbed my head with her hand and it burned the skin on her hands. That’s the stuff they infused into my body. A definite scorched earth approach. I had an exercise bike in my room, but despite a lifetime of fitness, exercise was not on my agenda. Even walking the hallway was hard. Natalie created daily goals for me which I now appreciate but then hated. I am so glad Natalie committed to being with me–I was deeply motivated to endure because of her. Without her committing so much to me, I very likely would have given up. One day a bunch of staff barged into the room and started wheeling me out. When challenged by Natalie, they said the chemo had swollen my throat and my airway was shrinking, and was now too narrow to intubate me so they were going to give me a tracheotomy. She objected and I could not speak but wrote No Trach on a white board. She said I was breathing and she was watching me so if needed she would get them but for now, no trach. I am so glad to not have that additional complication. Slowly my markers started improving, the stem cells were working and I was getting stronger. I hated being in the hospital and begged every day to be released. The food at the Hunstman Cancer Institute was pretty good but it got old very fast. With a very low appetite I survived on Clear Boost--the chocolate and vanilla boost were too heavy for me, I threw them up 100% of the time. We had to order cases of clear boost online because you couldn't get it locally. One of our daily goals was to drink 6 boosts per day to get the minimum calories--super gross. So whenever a craving hit, we jumped on it and used Door Dash. Because of where we were and Covid, the delivery driver left my food at the entry and I had to send a nurse to get it. Memorable meals were McDonald's breakfast, Chipotle burrito bowls, Taco Time tacos. I eventually started to order food for the floor, donuts mostly. Finally they told me my body hit the right numbers and we could go home. I rang the cancer free bell and hit the road.
