Larry’s Medical blog

Sibs,

Well, it appears like almost all the necessary poking, prodding, peeing, bleeding, and whining have been accomplished. I am scheduled for admission to UofM on Wednesday afternoon, October 3rd.

PREPARING FOR TRANSPLANT

This transplant (and maybe the next one) is a self (autologous) transplant in which they harvest my own stem cells and give them back to me after a serious dose of immune-system destroying chemotherapy. In preparation for the harvesting, I self-injected large volumes of Neupogen, a white blood cell booster. I also received a port in my chest, that I have named “Elsie” – a triple lumen catheter that will be used for drawing blood, administering chemo drugs, harvesting stem cells, and giving the stem cells back to me.

I walked into the harvesting (Apheresis) clinic last Monday with a white cell count of 42 – way beyond the normal range of 5 – 12.Based on my height and weight, we learned that my stem cell harvest goal was 6 million cells – enough for two transplants of 3 million cells.

Despite my off-the-charts white blood cell count of 42, we only collected 2.3 million cells on Monday. On Tuesday my white cell count was even higher (50!), but we only collected 1.2 million cells. Hmmmm…. On Wednesday the Apheresis clinic staff “manually” adjusted the stem cell collection process, and collected 2.7 million cells. Victory! We had 6. 2 million cells and I could stop the four-needles-a-day injections of Neupogen (which was causing painful side effects). This was the last hurdle before the Bone Marrow Transplant/Stem Cell Recovery.

ADMISSION TO THE HOSPITAL

On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 2nd, I have an outpatient visit with the transplant physician and support staff, who will outline more details of the process and answer any questions. I will also receive the infusion of the immune-system destroying chemo drug Melphelan. Then they send me home.

The next day, Wednesday October 3rd, I have an appointment at 2:30pm in which they will admit me to the hospital. I’ll be in a single room with isolation restrictions. The restrictions are not as bad as I originally thought (no masks, gowns, footies needed). They limit the number of simultaneous visitors, require visitors to wash their hands on the way into the room, restrict anyone from using my bathroom, and of course require that all visitors be healthy and not carrying any active germs.

THE TRANSPLANT

Compared to all the other stuff I’ve been through, the actual transplant is very anti-climatic. On Thursday or Friday a nurse will walk in the room with a partially filled IV bag, connect it to my IV pole, and in 20 minutes I will have received my stem cells. Ta-Da.

For the next 2 – 3 weeks, the medical staff will monitor my immune system’s recovery from the Melphalan and my progress in the areas of eating, not throwing-up too much, not having diarrhea, and having enough energy to get up-and-around. When they think my immune system is strong enough, and I am healthy enough, they’ll send me home. At that point, I begin the “100 Day Count” – 100 days of recovery from receipt of stem cells until I am healthy enough to leave the house… although special precautions may be required. More about this later.

VISITORS – IN THE HOSPITAL AND AT HOME

During my hospital stay and my recovery I cannot predict how I will be feeling or whether it is safe for me to have guests. If you feel like visiting please call Irene and check – she’ll be the gatekeeper for those decisions. Please don’t be offended if the answer is no.

Finally – we were told that I am not allowed to have any flowers or plants in my hospital room or near me at home. So, if you were thinking of anything in this category… cross it off the list.

That’s the latest news from Hamburg.

-larry