The day started pretty normal. My sister came after breakfast with a little bonus danish which is always delicious. I was a little worried about eating it as I knew it had honey on it and I know honey is not good for babies. Since I know that, an I was an immune system baby, so to speak, I really wasn’t sure if I should eat it. So I asked Dr. Federenko what he thought, and he said it was fine but no food after noon. No problem. So I ate the danish. And it was tasty. But then my stomach got in a bit of a knot. I think it was just one of those things where again, I had likely worked my self up to what I knew was going to be a big moment, and I was making too much of it.
It’s funny though, because I have seen this procedure done on other people thanks to video, so I pretty much knew what to expect. I really didn’t think I was nervous. Perhaps I was since it was now officially my turn. I asked what I could wear and Dr. F said what ever I wanted, so I donned my DANSTRONG shirt of course! I wanted Dan represented in this process even though he could not be here himself. It gave me strength to get through the day!
I got my DANSTRONG going on and I’m ready to go!
So into the DANSTRONG shirt and into bed. They came in to put heart monitors on me and blood pressure cuffs as well as pulse/oxygen monitoring equipment. I felt ready to go. My stomach was still a little upset, but I was ready to go nonetheless. Then enters the frozen bin! My sister got a shot of it before they took the stem cells out. It was “steaming” actually freezing but looked like it was steaming.
Here is the freezing “smoldering” bin that contained my frozen stem cells.
Dr. Federenko enters the room and examines me to make sure everything is ready to go. He asks me how I am feeling and tells me a little about what to expect. He then holds up the bag of my stem cells to see. It was really weird. The last time I saw them, they were a heaping bag of read stuff. Now it looked like a paper thin sheet of semi pink plastic. Where did they all go?
Hi little stemmies! You sure look smaller than the last time I saw you. Now go thaw out and get to work!
No to worry, they were thawed and put into a series of giant syringes for re-infusion. There were four total. It sure looked like a whole lot more once they were thawed. Since taking out the original neck catheter they used for stem cell collection and replacing it with what we affectionately call the octopus, it is much easier to administer meds and take blood. The stem cels will be reinserted through one of these lines and any additional medication can be administered through any one of the others. Works well and its much more comfortable then the prior line.
Last minute preparation for the procedure which lasted about 10 to 15 minutes.
The time has come. Dr. Federenko is in the room, Nikoli his assistant as well, along with a nurse and my sister. LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED! It starts with a shot of something to help my heart. Then Nikoli starts the first infusion of stem cells. He is joking with me that I might taste a tomato taste in my mouth while this is going on. I say it tastes like Pizza Pie! All the while, I am hooked up to the machines and Dr. Federenko is asking how I am feeling. He tells me that it is common for people to feel pressure in their chest or tightening in the chest. I did not have that. He is a persistent one though, and he keeps asking. I did say I felt warm and a little “thick” around the neck.
I will tell you that during this process they did have to stop one time although my sister says twice to administer some atropine to raise my heart rate as it had dropped and to give me some blood pressure meds due to my blood pressure spiking. It was no problem. They did it and put my on oxygen and continued the process until it was done. All in all it took about 10 or 15 minutes.
After everything was done, I was told to rest which I gladly did. I was exhausted. In about an hour our team would be having our new life celebration party and I was not going to miss that for the world!