Student with leukemia resting after stem cell transplant in Buffalo

CHAT HAM A week has passed since Chatham native Jocelyn McGlynn received a stem-cell transplant, though it remains to be seen if the treatment will help cure her leukemia.

The 21-year-old Western University medical science student was fortunate to have a 20-year-old stem-cell donor who was a perfect match.

The transplant was done at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Buffalo, N.Y. on Feb. 20. The procedure is needed for the aspiring doctor to be cured of the acute myelomonocytic leukemia she was diagnosed with in late November 2018.

Peter McGlynn said the transplant took one hour and 20 minutes for “the cells to be inducted” into his daughter.

Asked when he will know whether the transplant worked, he said it takes about a month for new cells to become Jocelyn’s new bone marrow. McGlynn said once her white blood cell counts recover, another biopsy will be done.

“They will test that bone marrow to see how everything is progressing,” he said.

When asked how Jocelyn was doing Tuesday, her father said, “Right now, she’s tired.”

He added, she’s “bottoming out,” because her white blood cells are “basically non-existent, so she doesn’t have an immune system.” However, Jocelyn is continuing to exhibit her fighting spirit. McGlynn said she is supposed to walk at least a mile a day around the wing she is in at the cancer centre, but she is walking three to four.

We’re happy that the weather co-operated from wherever the stem cells were coming from that day

On Tuesday, he added she still managed to walk a mile even though she wasn’t feeling that well. “She’s just continuing to push herself.”

In the meantime, every effort is being made to help Jocelyn avoid any kind of illness while her immune system is compromised. “If we feel a tickle (in our throat) or anything else, we just aren’t able to see her,” McGlynn said.

The McGlynn family is relieved the stem-cell transplant is complete, but they still weren’t totally at ease until the stem cell donation arrived.

“We’re happy that the weather co-operated from wherever the stem cells were coming from that day,” McGlynn said.

Since they didn’t know where the donor stem cells would come from, he said they checked weather forecasts from across North America that day. McGlynn said there was also relief knowing the search for a donor is over.

“It gives us an opportunity just to pause and be thankful, because there’s so many families that aren’t this lucky.”