It started with 4 months of induction chemotherapy, which beat down my cancerous blood and bone marrow.
This was followed by one high dose of mobilization chemo to persuade my bone marrow to cooperate during the pre-harvest stage.
Next I received 2 shots of neupogen a day for 9 days which told my bone marrow to over-produce white blood cells. On day 10, I went to the hospital for "harvest". There were 2 days blocked off for the collection process. I was hooked up to a machine that cycles my blood through a centrifuge that separates the stem cells and plasma. The doctor needs 5 million stem cells for each of 2 transplants, so I had tall orders. I went at this with gusto and produced 12 million stem cells in the first day. Not only did get a pass on the last 2 shots of neupogen, but I did not have to go back for another day of harvest. :)
This did not come easy though. I was warned that on or about day 7 of the neupogen shots my bones would become stressed with the over-abundance of blood cells and it would be quite painful until the bone marrow decided to push the cells into my blood stream (approximately 24 hours later). I was given a prescription for synthetic morphine. Friday around noon I developed severe pain in my lower back. I started on the morphine regimen (2 pills every 2 hours) and still endured considerable pain for the next 24 hours. After that a more general bone and joint ache set in and Tylenol 3's were able to tackle that pain for me for the next few days.
The next step begins on May 20th. I will be admitted to the hospital and begin the process of destroying my bone marrow and immune system then transplanting those stem cells back in to rebuild it all. I can't wait to get it started so that it gets finished. :)
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