Transfusions, Needles and Stem Cells, Oh My!

Hi Everyone!

It hits me every now and then, how the girl who barely took an Advil for a headache, now has all this crazy medical drama on a daily basis. I used to always joke with doctors when they asked the usual allergy and history questions, that I was medically boring. Well baby, look at me now!!  :0)

So since we last talked, I had a drs appt on Friday that was SUPPOSED to be a quick check in, and ended up as a six hour ordeal that ended in me hooked up to my best friend the IV pole getting a liter of blood. I've never had a blood transusion before and I have to be honest, it creeped me out a bit. I kept wondering whose blood it was. Where did it come from? Was the donor a female? A male? A Yankees fan??? But after a few minutes I realized what a generous gift it was (even for a Yankees fan!), and how guilty I feel that I haven't donated more in my life. I hope to change that in my future and a huge THANK YOU for those of my friends and family that do donate!! You are literally life savers!

Anyway, after the doctors appointment, I went home and spent the weekend finishing up my 3 shots a day of the Neupegen that would cause my blood to produce extra stem cells for the collection on Tuesday. From a former needle wimp, the shots were surprisingly easy to give myself, but I was VERY glad to take the last dose yesterday morning!

Yesterday Kev and I headed in to Boston at 5:30 for Day 1 of Stem Cell collection. We had been told it could take 1-4 days to get the 4 million cells they would need for the Transplant. Our goal was to be there for 7:30 and with the snow, it was just a little after 7:30 when we arrived. There was a little scare my veins weren't big enough for this procedure, and I'd have to have a central line inserted in my neck (yuck!), but they brought up the Vein expert and he was able to get me all hooked up. I've attached some picturess of the machine below that filter out the Stem Cells. Kev and I called it the Super Duper Blood Whirlly-Majiggy. Whatever the techincal name of it, I had a huge needle IV in one arm, that drew my blood out of me and into the machine, where the stem cells were filtered out. Then it was mixed with Calcium (to  prevent clotting) and sent through another IV in the other arm back into my body.

We shared the transfusion room with two older gentleman and their wives, also battling various forms of Cancer and prepairing for transplants, but also currently looking and feeling pretty healthy at this time. The first time we visited the room for a vein check, the other patients in the room were very sickly and it was very uncomfortable the few minutes I was there. I was nervous it would be the same this time and was quite relived it wasn't. One of the gentleman actually flew up from Florida to use MGH because he couldn't get  the care he wanted  in FL. We share the same team of doctors and he reminded me how lucky we are to have such world class care so close to us. I'll try not to complain about my commutes to Boston anymore!

As procedures go, this wasn't too bad. Other than getting the IV's inserted there was no real pain, but the fact I couldn't move my arms or use the bathroom the whole time was pretty annoying!  The whole process was 5 hrs long, and I was told my total volume of blood was filtered approx. 3 times. The bag of Orangey/Red gloop is actually my Stem Cells! That was rolled away to be preserved and frozen until I'm ready for transplant. My Doctor came down to visit and said he would call us tonight to let us know if we needed to come back tomorrow for more or if we were all set. We headed home with fingers crossed that we were all set.

I'm pleased to report that my Doctor called last night and let us know we had collected enough for not one, but two transplants in one day!! So not only do I not have to go back this week, in the event I ever need a second transplant sometime down the line, I have a whole bag of Stem Cells on ice waiting just for me!! Aparently the have records of them being frozen and then used for 20+ years and more so we're very excited!

Well thanks for listening, this was a long post, but this is such a crazy experience, I just wanted to share it with you! Enjoy the pictures!

Talk Soon!

xoxo
Tara =0)