The summer harvest I am talking about now is the recent visit I made to the Apheresis Stem Cell Collection Center in Greenville. But, first I must tell you in order to "harvest" my stem cells I had a temporary catheter placed in the left side of my neck. The tubes on this catheter are larger than the power port that I already have in place which is used for chemo, blood products, etc., you get the picture, right? I was under the assumption, there I go again assuming about things I know nothing about, that I would be under anesthesia during the procedure. After all, the instructions said nothing to eat or drink after midnight, duh! Okay, so when we got checked into the hospital as an outpatient, the nurse says, and by the way it is already 2:00 p.m. (you know I was thirsty and hungry at this point), she says you can have the anesthesia or you can just have a local anesthetic, what is she talking about?? I asked, "will the procedure be painful?" The nurse says it shouldn't be painful because it does not take more than 30 minutes to an hour for the procedure (I should have thought what does the length of a procedure have to do with pain!) At this point, I should have asked, "are you speaking from the experience of having this procedure?" But, oh no I didn't ask and went with the local anesthetic. Boy, was that a mistake! I really am not a wuss about pain, but let me tell you it was painful! There is a silver lining to this story though. There was a medical tech in the room named Jerry, he was wearing a silver type necklace with I think some sort of religious medallion. He was helping with the set up and he could see I was in distress when the first of three injections was put into my jugular vein. Wonder if it was the tears rolling down my cheeks or the moaning, either way, he reached for my hand and held it the rest of the time telling me to take a deep breath and let it out. He kept telling me I was doing great! He got me through the ordeal....he is my angel or maybe it was God dressed in green scrubs. I am blessed that he was there! Here is a picture of my neck with the catheter in place.
Before I tell you about the harvesting of my stem cells, I must take you back a few days and explain the preliminary things I had to do to be ready for the "harvesting." Four days previous, I gave myself an injection of Neupogen in the stomach. Nurses had trained me the week before. The Neupogen syringe was already filled with the right dose and size needle. So it was fairly easy to do myself. If I didn't explain before what Neupogen does, it increases the white blood cells (infection fighters) from which the stem cells will be harvested. The nurses are looking for a number between 4-6 million stem cells to be harvested from the white cells collected. Then, on the night (exactly at 9:00 p.m.) before havesting, I have to give myself an injection of Mozobil (the nurses called it the "bomb") because it multiplies the white cells even more than the Neupogen. Don't ask me why exactly 9:00 p.m., I did just like they asked. Anyway, this injection was not prefilled. I had to fill the syringe from the Mozobil vial exactly to 0.6 on the syringe, without any bubbles! Then change the needle to a smaller one for injection. You know the old saying, "how many people does it take to change a light bulb?" Well, it took Bill and I reading typed instructions, to complete this process. Yikes, I am no nurse and do not ever want to be! Way too stressful!
We reported to the Apheresis Center at 7:30 a.m. the next day to start the harvesting of the stem cells. An unfortunate part of the process is once you are hooked to the machine, you have to lay there for 5 hours, no getting up for a bathroom visit. You guessed it, use a bed pan! The nurses do everything, because I am not allowed to touch the pan, how humbling is that! Anyway, the first day of harvest, they got 2.98 million cells. So, you guessed it, repeat the injections and come back the second day. Same scenario, 5 hours laying in the bed. I am so sick of the History channel on TV. I probably can't even remember anything that could be useful the next time we play Trivial Pursuit! Good news though, they called us later that day and said they got 3.30 million cells. That meant we did not have to come back because I exceeded the goal of 6 million cells. First time I think I can actually call myself an "over achiever!" It felt good! They did provide us box lunches which were good. I just had to munch on mine laying down! Here are pictures of me and of the apheresis machine.
The machine is really a wonder to see in action, the nurses are constantly monitoring and punching in numbers. I was also given a calcium drip, see it on the other side of me. Don't really know what it is for, but it must be important.
As the white blood cells are collected from my blood, red blood cells, platelets and plasma are also taken. Because of this, usually your blood cell count and/or platelets drop. I received platelets the next day with additional IV fluids at the cancer center and they also removed the temporary catheter, YEA! We were released to go home for a 6 day rest before we have to be back to continue the stem cell transplant. When we got home yesterday a Netflix was waiting for us. We watched the movie SeaBiscuit. If you have not seen it, we recommend it. A real feel good story. The message I got from the movie is, just because I'm banged up a bit, don't count me out of the race to win the battle!
I know, you are wondering when is she going to finish this story. But, one more thing. The Cancer Center in Greenville has provided Bill and I a two bedroom, 2 bath very nice apartment not far from the cancer center and the hospital. We will have it available to us until August 3rd. It is free of charge, can you believe it, how blessed we are. Here is a picture of the company sign next to the front door.
I know I was a little "chatty" today, but I had so much to tell everyone. Thanks for your loving prayers and God Bless all of you that follow me.
