Day 9: Stem Cell Collection!!

After four days of steroids and twice daily stem cell stimulation shots, the big day was finally here.  It was Stem Cell Collection Day!  When we woke up, I looked outside my door and saw a machine sitting there ready and waiting to go.  Dr. Federenko said it was just like a dialysis machine and it was made in the U.S.A.  Good enough for me.

So here’s what will happen, they will hook me up to this machine through the central line they have inserted into my neck.  It will run for about 5 hours and it will cycle my blood through, and separate out my stem cells from the blood and return the blood to my body.  This process will happen twice, I’m told.

The goal for today to to get 2 million stem cells per kg. of body weight.  I won’t go into exact numbers for obvious reasons.  A lady has to have some secrets right?  There are three  of us doing stem cell collection today,  and I’m hoping we all get our stem cells in one shot.  I won’t be terribly upset if I don’t get them all.  Its not uncommon for people to take two days and sometimes even three days.

First thing, Dr. Federenko came in and set up the machine.  He organized all the tubing and made sure the machine was in working order.  Then Nikolai came in and hooked me up and got things going.  Incidentally he was the same guy who did my hair cut the day before.

There is a very short cord on this machine so there really is nothing much for any of us to do while this process is going on except lie in bed.  Which makes going to the bathroom a bit of a challenge.  You really have two choices.  You can either hold it or you can use the diaper they make you wear.  Yes they give you a diaper.  No secrets here.  I have always said this would be full disclosure.  But for the record, I managed to hold it.  I think the key here was I drank nothing in the morning and didn’t even have breakfast.  I waited on all of that until the process was done.  It wasn’t easy as it actually took 6 hours rather than the 5 I was told.  But I made it.  Yay for me!

When everything was said and done,  Nikolai came and started to break down the machine.  There was one little bag of what he said were my stem cells.  It didn’t look like much to me and I was a bit worried,  but there was nothing I could do about it at this point. All signs had pointed to good collection.  I had bone pain the prior three nights which said to me that stem cels were moving through the bones to the bloodstream.  But still that little bag made me a little nervous.  My friends said they would wait a day for me if I didn’t make it,  and that was a nice gesture.

Now we just had to wait.  After they collect the stem cells, they send them off to two different labs to confirm numbers.  I was so tired that all I wanted to do was sleep.  My sister got me a little fan at the Russian version of our 99 cent store and that helped me take a nap as I was really warm.  It seemed like no time had passed when Dr. Federenko came in to tell me that not only had I collected enough stem cells, my entire team made their numbers as well!  We would all be starting Chemotherapy tomorrow!

One last thing which was a bonus for getting all our stem cels is that we got our central lines removed!  Sounds great and it was.  Only thing is we get new lines the next day for the chemo.  But that is alright.  The new lines are thinner and more flexible and hopefully more comfortable.  I did insist on seeing this thing after it was removed though.  It was HUGE!!!

I was very happy with 2.1 million stem cells per kg.  My friend Kim got 2.4 million and that bastard Bill got 4.8 million!  He is an over achiever but we love that Aussie Bloke!  Good for all of us.  And it’s the best 3rd place finish I have ever had.  Ill take it!    We have all made it, and now move on the the heart of the matter, Chemotherapy.  As they say, Chemo is the Key.  Chemotherapy will be killing off the bad parts of our immune system and the stem cells simply help us to rebuild a new one without all the bad stuff.  Here’s looking forward to Chemo!