Ok... so I believe with my last post I left off at the end of collection day two. Thursday started out the same as the last two... went right down for collection. The collections were starting to drag by this point. Luckily I had some yarn and my knitting needles to keep me occupied (I actually made a hat in 2 days, which is super fast for me). I think my poor mom must have read at least 3 books by the time we went home on Friday, lol. Anyway, after collection I had a meeting with my transplant coordinator Colleen and Dr McCarthy to go over a few more details of the process. I just have to say, that I love my Dr... he is so incredibly intelligent and down to earth at the same time. And he likes to talk... a lot. We met with him for over an hour so he could hit some of the high points of the process. We discussed what would happen if they didn't collect enough stem cells by the end of Friday (bone marrow harvest or re-mobilization), and then went over my chemo schedule. So, I was scheduled to return to Roswell on April 7th for blood work, pre admission testing (final approval for the SCT) and to have another central line placed in my neck (wo-hoo!). Then I would be admitted on the 8th to start chemo. And here's how that will work... day one I start a 26 hour infusion of Etoposide. After that I will have 4 days of Cytoxan, and then finally around a two hour infusion of Carmusine Then I will have 2 days of rest before I get my stem cells back. That day was scheduled for April 16 (my "re-birthday")... which is called day 0. The stem cells get unthawed and then given back to me just like I was getting a blood transfusion. I was also told that I'd start Neupogen shots again on day 5, and that I'd most likely need 2-4 transfusions for red blood cells and platelets (donated blood hard at work!). I'll stay on my full dosage of Lovenox until my platelets drop under 50, and then I'll go to a lower dosage. Speaking of Lovenox... while we were at the family meeting and my mom mentioned what a mess my stomach was from all the injections, Dr McCarthy called one of the nurses in to place an Insuflon port into my stomach (one of the other patients at Hope Lodge had told me about them). Where has this thing been since December?! It's sooo much easier, and just gets replaced once a week (and I can do it myself).
After the nitty gritty of the actual process was discussed, we got to the restriction part. For example... the house must be stupidly clean (it's time for spring cleaning though right?), I am not to clean the fish tank, clean up after the dogs, change diapers, go out in crowds without a mask, be around smoke of any kind (campfires, second or third hand smoke), garden at all (which is killing me!), no fresh or dried flowers, can't be in the room when someone is dusting or vacuuming, touch any dirty dishes or dirty laundry... you get the idea. The time frame for most things is between 3-6 months, though I'm more restricted the first 2 weeks after leaving the hospital. For example... no driving, can't be alone for more than 20 minutes at a time. Ummm yeah. This is gonna be a blast! After the meeting with the Dr, I got a tour of 5 East at Roswell, which is where they do the transplant. Then I went back to the BMT clinic for my afternoon shot of Mozobil. They had gotten my counts back from the morning, and I was up to 1.57... so I did better than the previous day. I was given an extra Neupogen shot that afternoon since Friday was the last day they could collect.
Friday morning (after my shot) we had the caregiver meeting, which was with a few other families. It was basically a power point presentation about what to expect and what the role of the caregiver is. We got another huge binder of info to read, but for the most part, it was just a summary of everything we had already learned that week. As soon as that was over I went down for collection. That one seemed like it took the longest because as soon as I was finished I'd get to go home. I went back to the BMT clinic when I was done to have my central line taken out. I had to hang out for a little bit because my blood pressure dropped and my neck wanted to bleed a bit (at least it didn't hurt to have it taken out). I was told that I'd prob have to wait until Monday (since I was on apheresis until 3:30) to get my counts back and they'd call me as soon as they knew what they were. So mom and I were off to Hope Lodge to grab our stuff, and then we were headed home! We were about an hour and a half away when I noticed I had a missed call and voice mail.... it was Dr McCarthy calling to let me know that they didn't get enough (only up to 1.8) and that we'd have to go to plan B. He said to take the weekend to think it over, and get back to them on Monday. Bummer. But at least I was on my way home to Chad and Dagen! I couldn't wait to squish my baby!! :)
I knew immediately that I wanted to do the bone marrow harvest... it won't be pleasant, but I'll be under general anesthesia, and I know they'll get what they need. If I were to re-mobilize and collect with apheresis again, I'd have to go through shots all over again, line placement, and it would set everything back a few weeks. No thanks, I'd just like to get this done and over with please. I called Colleen yesterday and after some monkeying around she got everything scheduled for me. Basically I'll still be going up to Buffalo on the 7th, and my bone marrow harvest will be on the 8th. I'll have my pre-admittance appointment, blood work and line placement on the 9th, and be admitted on the 10th to start chemo. My day 0 will now be on Sat. April 18th (my awesome Dr said they'd do it on Sat... normally it's a Mon-Fri kind of thing). Anesthesia is going to do a consult over the phone on Thursday (which is awesome!), and I'll be back at the Hope Lodge on the 7th with my mom. Just going to soak up as much of my little man and family as I can while I'm home... have a great Easter everyone!! :) xo
No comments:
Post a Comment