Mission accomplished

It has been a long week. By Wednesday, my neupogen shots were uncomfortable enough that I had to take Oxycodone to help with the pain. Wednesday afternoon, they put a catheter in my neck so they could take the stem cells from me on Thursday. It took about 3 hours for the blood to cycle from my body, through the machine that separated my red cells, white cells, plasma, platelets and stem cells. It too out the stem cells and the platelets and put my blood back into my body immediately. I didn't feel much, because they gave me some adavan that morning to help with nausea. I will not go into why I needed it. I was very sleepy, and spent most of my time snoozing, listening to HP and the HBP, or visiting with family. My brother came in and held my hand for a while.

I was finished around noon, and then I got to go sit with my brother who was getting some IV fluids. About 2 hours later, they gave my platelets back to me. It was a strange sensation. My lips went numb and they gave me some TUMS to chew on. Apparently, that numb feeling is due to a lack of calcium. Eating the TUMS fixed the problem. About an hour later, I was able to go home.

Friday morning I went back to the clinic where they removed my catheter. They got enough stem cells for the tansplant! Yay! After they took the catheter out, they asked if I wanted to see it. I looked. The part that went into my neck was about 6 inches long. I'm glad they sedated me when they put it in! After they pulled it out (I was fully awake an had to meds - it felt funny, but didn't hurt.) the nurse has to push on my neck for about 20 minutes to make sure I didn't bleed all over the place (That part hurt!). After the 20 minutes, they put a 5 pound weight on my neck for a little while, just to make sure. Then, they bandaged me up and sent me on my way!

Friday afternoon, they gave Tom my stem cells. They were in an IV bag, and they looked like tomato soup. (Plateltes are kind of green looking - like pea soup) It took about an hour and a half to drip in. Kind of anticlimactic, but exciting just the same. We made lots of jokes about him being a girl now, and me finally having an older sister (Because he got my stem cells, results from certain medical tests will show up as female from now on). He spent the night in the hospital, and went to the Hope Lodge the next day.

For the past two days, I have been feeling better (still tired, but not as achey anymore), and Tom has gotten more and more tired. This is probably because of the radiation. He will probably go back into the hospital sometime this week, but it is to be expected. Later on, he will get a form of Graft VS Host disease, which is what we want, because that will help kill any lingering Leukemia cells. He just needs a mild case - nothing bad or serious. Then, it is the road to recovery. He has to spend 100 days at the Hope Lodge. Today he will have 97 days left. I keep telling him - just like the beers on the wall.

I go home today. I don't want to leave, but I know he will be fine. We will come back in the spring, when he will be able to go outside with people and not have to worry about catching a cold. Let's hope time flies!