After transplant, a quiet recovery

John Bucci Jr. has gone home cancer free, and he plans to cook a steak.

Bucci, the owner and griddle master of John's Roast Pork in Philadelphia, was released from Jeanes Hospital on Monday evening after a successful bone-marrow transplant to cure his pre-leukemia.

"John has had an unusually benign course for a healthy donor-transplant recipient so far," said his doctor, Thomas Klumpp, assistant director of the Fox Chase Temple Bone Marrow Transplant Program.

In an e-mailed note, Klumpp emphasized "so far," because even a successful bone-marrow transplant from a donor carries significant long-term risks, including sometimes fatal graft-versus-host disease, or a relapse of cancer.

Simply getting to this point was a challenge, Klumpp said. About 50 percent of the candidates that Fox Chase-Temple's transplant program sees, he said, do not survive until the procedure.

Ever the competitor, Bucci was eager to deal with his cancer, a condition known as chronic myeloproliferative disease, as swiftly as possible.

"When I got to the hospital, I asked the doctor what the record [for discharge] was, and he said a girl got out in 28 days," said Bucci. "Well, I didn't break the record, but I was in for just 33 days. And the care I got there was unbelievable. Those doctors and nurses do God's work."

For now, Bucci is simply relieved to be back in his Mantua, Gloucester County, home, where the basement shrine to his idol, Elton John, has been transformed into his room. He's on a daily regimen of nearly 10 prescription drugs and is dealing with leg muscles that ache from cramping as the white blood cells return to his body. He's bald from the chemotherapy. And he's hoping that his appetite will return soon.

"I'm going to cook a nice T-bone steak tonight and see how that goes," he said.

That's about the only grill he's going near for a while, he insisted. Bucci plans to recuperate for another 10 months before returning to the heat of the luncheonette grill in South Philadelphia - though he may pay a social visit to his regulars at John's picnic tables in a month or so.

"This takes a lot out of you, and I'm really weak," he said.

While Bucci's immune system recovers and rebuilds, Klumpp said, the patient must take care to stay away from crowds - which includes restaurants ("sorry about that," Klumpp said).

That may also explain why Bucci decided to forgo the Elton John concert at the Jersey Shore in late July. It wasn't an easy pill to swallow, considering Bucci has already seen Sir Elton in concert 53 times.

"Oh, I'm disappointed about the concert," said Bucci. "But I just want to get back to work."