Yesterday was a long day but we got a lot done. We were at P/SL by 7:00 am for the collection (aka "harvest") of Doug's stem cells. By 8:00 he was hooked up to the apheresis machine which started to suck his blood from one central line, run it through lots of tubes to the centrifuge, which separated the different parts of the blood. The stem cell part was collected in a bag and the rest of his blood was returned to him via another of his central lines. Blood in, whiz it around, blood out. Only one cup of his blood was in the machine at any one time. The lines are running under his shirt. For the first hour, there was a nurse right at bedside all the time to make sure all was okay. After that, they came in to monitor the machine and check Doug every 15 minutes. If we needed them, there was always someone within a shout. The team of nurses and technicians explained everything to us; it was really very interesting to learn how the technology works.
Doug was hooked up to the machine for five hours - a long time but he was fairly comfortable. The tubes were just long enough that he was able to use the bathroom when necessary.
The close up of the machine shows the pinkish bag of stem cells hanging on the top right.
As soon as Doug was unhooked, one of the techs personally took the bag of stem cells up to the lab where they were processed and frozen. She said "I'll take good care of these babies."
We got a phone call several hours later that day -- good news -- they collected 20 million cells, and we only needed 10 million! The extra cells will be kept frozen in case they are needed later. Often stem cell collection takes several days to get enough cells, so we are very thankful that the wonder drug Mozobil worked its magic in one day.
We went back to the hotel for a quick lunch, and then headed back to the hotel for the mandatory two hour patient/caregiver class. This consisted mostly of information we already knew, but it was helpful to have representatives of most of the team speak. Presenters consisted of a nurse, social worker, psychologist, and dietician. The psychologist talked about ways to deal with stress; then the nurse talked about the importance of reporting "events" to the clinic immediately. She said "with transplant patients, things can go bad very quickly". We know that, but hearing it added to the stress!
When we finally got back to the hotel (guess I should just start calling it 'home') we crashed on the couch. Later, when I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, I noticed some spots on the bathroom floor that had been there the day before. We get 'light housekeeping' (clean towels and emptying waste baskets) every day and full cleaning once a week. Tuesday was supposed to be our full cleaning day so I was not happy to see a dirty floor. I have lots of cleaning supplies with me to clean surfaces, but I don't really think I should need to mop floors. So guess I will ask to talk to the head housekeeper. Sure don't want to get anyone in trouble but I must carry out that part of my caregiver duties.
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