Yes, that is how many of those little stem cells they found today. It wasn't as high as I had hoped, but I am SOOO happy that we have gotten started. The actual collection process is done by hooking my two catheter tubes up to a leukopheresis machine. The blood goes out one tube, goes thru the machine, and then back into me thru the other tube. The machine spins my blood and separates out the white cells into a collection bag. The actual machine didn't look as high tech as I would have thought. It had manual knobs, lots of visible tubing, and at times whirred like a pinball machine getting ready to tilt. But I was assured it was a very reliable piece of equipment that works like a charm. At the end of the process, a lady arrived with her igloo cooler to carry my precious cargo up to lab where the stem cells were separated and counted.
I did ok on the machine. The four hour process left me a little tingly and weak, but nothing a nap back at the apartment couldn't fix. The process pulls lots of calcium out of your bloodstream so I am eating my cheese and drinking milk in preparation for tomorrow. They give you Tums during the process to control any tingling and chills....I'd prefer to eat a Stomboli tonight and have a little ice cream for dessert!
I will go back for a maximum of four more days unless I get to six million stem cells first. Over/under on that bet anyone?? My white blood cell count rose to around 9.0 today (I never saw the final count). And my platelets jumped to 27,000, so no transfusions. Yeah! David Rice and Dr. Reich (donor room doctor) decided to hold off on giving me Ruth's platelets since my platelets had improved so much. If I take Ruth's platelets, she will not be able to be a stem cell donor should I ever need her in the future. So they don't want to take that option away from me unless it is an absolute necessity.
As for the platelet issue, they confirmed today that I have HLA antibodies in my system, which basically means I am rejecting the "foreign" platelets from the transfusions. I developed these antibodies either as a reaction to a previous transfusion or from being pregnant with one of the kids. It sounds like they will use the results of my HLA type to find a donor that is a close enough match that my system won't reject the platelets. They have a few weeks before my transplant to figure it all out. But it sounds like my bloodwork is coming out of the woods from this last chemo round which is very encouraging!
Thanks once again for all of the continued prayers. I know that they have made a difference.
This blog was started in Jan '07 as a way to update family and friends on my fight against relapsed Hodgkins Lymphoma. I underwent chemo and a stem cell transplant at Sloan Kettering in 2007 and then spent six years in remission. The blog went dormant as life became less about cancer and more about living. Now I am facing Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) that has developed from previous chemo. So I have dusted off the old Blog (still very un-tech-savvy). Time to get up and fight again!
5 comments:
Well, alrighty now! That's more like it, platlets...keep 'um comin'!
Well, the blessing is that your precious Sister Ruth can visit with you guys up there. It's nothing like a little extra family to cheer you up. May God continue to provide his healing and encouragement during the wait.
Your dad showed us a photo of your parents "new" home. It's beautiful! I told him that I will be responsible for planning the housewarming. He's been working so hard. He deserves a dog...come on Lois, please! (smile)
Rachel, you and the ladies take care, O.K.
With Love,
Stacy
Rachel: so much good news and I know you must be happy not to have to receive a transfusion today! Keep praying and the postive thoughts which I can read and feel thru your writings. I will be in NYC in less than 2 weeks, and would love to see you...hopefully you'll be home though. with much prayer, Bobby wright
Rachel,
Seven hundred thousand stem cells? Sounds to me like St Mark's account of feeding the multitude with a few small fishes and the seven loaves of bread. The seven loaves feed a multitude of 4,000 people so I'm thinking you are going to be blessed with more than enough stem cells for harvesting.
Go the seven, feed the many.
Love,
George A
Beautiful news! You are in my thoughts and prayers- Caroline ps. glad you have been able to enjoy NYC a bit
chi chi chi chichichichichichichi
six million times! HLA antibodies...hummnnnn. Well if I gotum you can have um. I hope George Allen cutie pie matches you becuase if I do match then I will have to wean off of my medications(nerve pain)first. That's ok of course and we will cross that bridge yada yada. I myself believe you my dear sweet cousin are well on your way to complete, absolute, 100% healing by none other than God himself. But that's just me.
Oh yea...should I........ok,
CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.
DA DA DA...GO GATORS!
Being a die hard football fan I found it interesting that several people living on my cul de sac began shooting fireworks until after midnight last night and on a worknight! That upset many of my more subdued and cultured neighbors. Yep, I believe I might need to take a closer look at this Final Four thing!
UNF is only a 45 minute drive from my house and I think I could hear squeeking from all that college kid grinning from ear to ear all day today! Happy Football fans and happy basketball fans, together at last. Hmmm life is good. Love ya.
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