The fact that I actually am here typing is great news. I have survived the scariest thing I felt was still ahead of me. Yes, I made it through the placement of my port. I don’t want to get too far ahead of the rest of the story, but I thought I would get that out first so that you all would know that I was still alive. Now for a little detail.
In the same fashion that we started the last three days, today began at 5:30 when the alarm sounded. Actually it started at 4 AM for me because I couldn’t sleep. We jumped in the car and headed to the Mayo Hospital. Today was a little different in that I had to take a blood test before the injections to see if I had enough stem cells in my blood to start the harvest. After that was done, I had my daily two injections. We were told at the time that it would take about an hour and a half before we would get the results of the test, so I headed down to Radiology where the port would be installed.
For whatever reason, I was not in a state of panic. My blood pressure was a little higher than normal, but nothing through the roof. I was early, so we had to wait a while, but at about 9:00 they took me back to the waiting/recovery area where I got on the hospital gown and waited. This time I was able to keep my underwear on, so there were no incidents similar to when I had the bone marrow biopsy. At about 10 o’ clock, they wheeled me into the operating area.
After doing the needed shaving of my chest and the sterilization of the affected area on my neck and upper chest, they introduced me to the doctor doing the insertion and then started gowning the area around the incisions. The nurse gave me an injected into the IV to get me to that famous “twilight” state. Only problem was, I was still 100% there. After a few minutes, I started to get a little nervous and asked when it was going to kick in. She said it already should have, so she gave me another shot and said it would take a minute.
By this time, half of my face and all of my chest was covered and my head was turned to the left side. One minute passed and nothing happen and then another minute passed and I was just as lucid as I ever am. (No snide comments out there.) All I could think about were those people that only get half of the required anesthetic and can feel all of the pain but are paralyzed and can’t tell anybody. Lucky for me, this wasn’t major surgery so I was still capable of letting them know I was still able to answer a Jeopardy question, if needed. Thankfully, they gave me another shot and all of a sudden I am awake and it is all over. Thank God for drugs.
I then had to wait for about 30 minutes before they would let me go, so they gave me a plain turkey sandwich on wheat. Not my first choice, but better than nothing. Probably cost me $75.
While we were waiting, I had received a voice mail that said that I not only qualified to go ahead with the harvest, but my number was more than twice what was needed. I guess the chest pain was worth it. Up to the fourth floor we went and got strapped into the harvest machine.
My nurse was a nice lady by the name of Chan. She had given me my shot earlier in the day and had given me the shot on Saturday. She was to spend the rest of the day with me, over five hours. This is not one of those situations where the patient gets hooked up and the nurse walks away. She as at the machine making sure that everything was running properly for all but about five minutes of the five hours. Chan knows her stuff as she was a nice drill sergeant. I was not allowed to move a muscle for the five hours. When you move it caused more non-stem cells to get into the mix. The cleaner the mix, the better the end solution.
When the five hours concluded, I had gained 1.5 pounds due to the saline solution that I was given. They monitor your weight through the entire process. This will also be the case when I enter the hospital. There is a tendency to retain water and they want to watch that extremely closely. After we returned home, we received the call confirming that we would have to return on Wednesday. However, I had an exceptional day as 4.15 million stem cells were collected. They set 8 million as the minimum before a transplant can take place. Most people have to go three days with some going four. I have been told that the second day of collection is often more than day one. Hopefully that is the case and I can complete the task in just two days.
Needless to say the incisions are extremely sore and I am pretty beat and it is just 9 PM. I have to be very careful when showering as the incisions cannot get wet or the risk of infection increases significantly. It could be a morning of wrapping in Saran Wrap.
In the same fashion that we started the last three days, today began at 5:30 when the alarm sounded. Actually it started at 4 AM for me because I couldn’t sleep. We jumped in the car and headed to the Mayo Hospital. Today was a little different in that I had to take a blood test before the injections to see if I had enough stem cells in my blood to start the harvest. After that was done, I had my daily two injections. We were told at the time that it would take about an hour and a half before we would get the results of the test, so I headed down to Radiology where the port would be installed.
For whatever reason, I was not in a state of panic. My blood pressure was a little higher than normal, but nothing through the roof. I was early, so we had to wait a while, but at about 9:00 they took me back to the waiting/recovery area where I got on the hospital gown and waited. This time I was able to keep my underwear on, so there were no incidents similar to when I had the bone marrow biopsy. At about 10 o’ clock, they wheeled me into the operating area.
After doing the needed shaving of my chest and the sterilization of the affected area on my neck and upper chest, they introduced me to the doctor doing the insertion and then started gowning the area around the incisions. The nurse gave me an injected into the IV to get me to that famous “twilight” state. Only problem was, I was still 100% there. After a few minutes, I started to get a little nervous and asked when it was going to kick in. She said it already should have, so she gave me another shot and said it would take a minute.
By this time, half of my face and all of my chest was covered and my head was turned to the left side. One minute passed and nothing happen and then another minute passed and I was just as lucid as I ever am. (No snide comments out there.) All I could think about were those people that only get half of the required anesthetic and can feel all of the pain but are paralyzed and can’t tell anybody. Lucky for me, this wasn’t major surgery so I was still capable of letting them know I was still able to answer a Jeopardy question, if needed. Thankfully, they gave me another shot and all of a sudden I am awake and it is all over. Thank God for drugs.
I then had to wait for about 30 minutes before they would let me go, so they gave me a plain turkey sandwich on wheat. Not my first choice, but better than nothing. Probably cost me $75.
While we were waiting, I had received a voice mail that said that I not only qualified to go ahead with the harvest, but my number was more than twice what was needed. I guess the chest pain was worth it. Up to the fourth floor we went and got strapped into the harvest machine.
My nurse was a nice lady by the name of Chan. She had given me my shot earlier in the day and had given me the shot on Saturday. She was to spend the rest of the day with me, over five hours. This is not one of those situations where the patient gets hooked up and the nurse walks away. She as at the machine making sure that everything was running properly for all but about five minutes of the five hours. Chan knows her stuff as she was a nice drill sergeant. I was not allowed to move a muscle for the five hours. When you move it caused more non-stem cells to get into the mix. The cleaner the mix, the better the end solution.
When the five hours concluded, I had gained 1.5 pounds due to the saline solution that I was given. They monitor your weight through the entire process. This will also be the case when I enter the hospital. There is a tendency to retain water and they want to watch that extremely closely. After we returned home, we received the call confirming that we would have to return on Wednesday. However, I had an exceptional day as 4.15 million stem cells were collected. They set 8 million as the minimum before a transplant can take place. Most people have to go three days with some going four. I have been told that the second day of collection is often more than day one. Hopefully that is the case and I can complete the task in just two days.
Needless to say the incisions are extremely sore and I am pretty beat and it is just 9 PM. I have to be very careful when showering as the incisions cannot get wet or the risk of infection increases significantly. It could be a morning of wrapping in Saran Wrap.
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