Great Harvest

Yesterday was a great day.  It started for me at 7:30 AM, and finished at about 6:30 PM.  I was trying to get geared-up for my final two Neupogen shots when the nurse brought in four needles and I thought, "you've got to be kidding!"  but that's the joys of being an adult patient at a pediatric hospital.  Anyway, I gave myself the shots, but that kind of set the tone for how the day would go.

I survived five arm pokes (3 right arm, 2 left arm) for IV placement, but it was for naught.  I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to needle pokes for blood draws, so this was lots of fun.  Due to mis-communication, the first two IVs that they placed were not large enough for the machine (the needles themselves were 17 gauge and were fine, but the tubing attached to them was too small).  The other three pokes were failed attempts.  So eventually I went down to surgery and they placed a large PICC line in the right side of my neck.  I'd been fasting since the day before in case of this eventuality.  They numbed the area and gave me enough anesthesia to relax me, but not enough put me out.  I finally got hooked-up to the harvesting machine at about 12:30 PM.

I was on the machine for nearly four hours (it went a little faster with the PICC line than it would have with an IV).  I experienced some interesting sensations; a couple hours into it, my whole face started tingling and went numb.  They gave me some calcium and it went away.  Near the end, it felt like my whole body was vibrating; I wasn't actually shaking at all, but I felt like a plucked string on a violin.  I joked with the attending technician and nurse that I felt like I was hooked-up to The Machine in the Princess Bride movie and asked how many years they'd sucked from my life.  By the time it was done, I felt drained and tired, but that was it.  I imagine it was much, much better than having marrow extracted directly from my bone.

I got back to Nicole's room at about 5:45 PM, and around 6:30 PM the results of the harvest came in:  43.8 million bone marrow stem cells.  The goal was to get 10 million, so no need for me to go through the collection process again.  They pulled the PICC line with me laying on the couch in Nicole's room.  Nicole was watching from her crib and said, "Daddy, froggy!" and tossed Kermit over to me; it as really cute.

The transplant will take place this evening.  Nicole is still doing pretty well, and I'm feeling much better, just a little achy and a sore neck.  I am very grateful for the many people who have been offering prayers in our behalf.