Stem Cell Collection is Done!!

So yesterday was the big day to collect stem cells.  The idea is they keep collecting for up to five days until they have enough.  In my case, they needed 10 million.  I'm very pleased to report, that they collected 46 million stem cells yesterday so I'm done with it.  I just met with the doctor about it.  He called me an overachiever and in this case a record breaker.  I call it lucky to be done with it.

30 year old centrifuge machine
This was after about an hour.  My stem cell
collection bag is the one that looks like tomato juice.

The actual procedure was a lot like I described in the last blog titled, "Time to Harvest."  But there were a couple variations worth sharing.  They had me lying in a hospital bed with mega IV needles going into each arm.  My right arm wasn't allowed to move at all and had a huge needle going half way through my elbow which provided all the encouragement needed to keep it still. 

My left arm was allowed to move but with restrictions.  So first comes the itching.  I could only reach  one side of my face with my left arm.  I believe that was the only portion of my body that didn't itch for the entire five hours.  I could ask for help with scratching but it seemed to only encourage other itches to surface.  I could have kept three people busy for five hours straight doing nothing but chasing down itches.  So I just mentally told each itch that it's not getting a scratch so it might as well go away.  It didn't work.  

They only other frustration was having to use the bathroom.  They were pumping in large volumes of fluid for the entire time so I was going to have to solve this problem quickly.  I had two options.  This first was to simply ask the nurse to take care of it.  She would handle the plastic thing and work on my clothes and finally have to handle other things to make it all work.  I guess I'm a little shy that way, so I went with option two.  

I had leg mobility, extremely limited use of one arm but my torso had to remain absolutely still.  I also had access to everything in the hospital room.  I asked for the plastic jug, two washcloths folded four times, an extra sock and two feet of dental floss. While alone, I worked it as if the clock was ticking on a bomb and I had to diffuse it.  But within a couple minutes, problem solved and life couldn't get any better.

As for the future, the doctor wants to hold me in the hospital for one more day to see if my fever goes up again.  He's almost certain I'll be released tomorrow (Sunday).

Mike