In short: Fate decided I could use a little adventure.

For this, it called on follicular lymphoma - a cancer of the immune system, clumsy dancer and rather unpleasant guest at dinner parties. I've been doin' the dance -- at times clumsily, at times with grace -- since summer '07. On with the rock...

Background Story. To tell a short story long...

It was not exactly how I wanted to spend my summer, or the ensuing year (and running) since Aug 2007, when I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. What a long, strange trip it's been. From Sep to Dec 2007, six rounds of chemo knocked out the lion's share of baddies and shrunk the tumors in my lymph nodes, e.g., 9cm to under 2cm in the ones in my abdomen. Saving up for a rainy day, which then came sooner than expected, docs collected my own stem cells in May 2008. Shortly thereafter, a routine computed tomography (CT) test showed my abdominal lymph nodes had doubled in size since Feb '08. So the good doctors at the University Clinic in Frankfurt geared me up for currently pending transplants, of my own cells and those of a still-undetermined donor, in fall 2008.