Good morning and Happy Stem Cell Day! The nurse just came in and said everything is a go for the transplant today. They have 7 bags of cells and the maximum they can infuse in a day is 6, so he'll get the six today and one more tomorrow. They will probably start later this morning.
Ed's white counts have dropped a little more today, but his reds are up after the transfusions yesterday, as expected. He's feeling pretty tired this morning, even though he slept well last night. He's resting now and we're waiting for breakfast to arrive so he can eat a little before they start. The infusions are similar to having platelets, except that a lab tech has to bring a kind of hydroculator (warm water bath contraption) into the room to gently thaw the frozen cells before they hang the bag to be gravity-fed into the tubing. The cells have been frozen in a preservative that has a very garlicky smell when thawed from what they are telling us - something called DMSO. That's about the most exciting part of the procedure apparently - the smell of an Italian kitchen......it's really kind of uneventful for its name. The nurses will give him a cake and sing happy birthday though. They tell us that many people consider this a new beginning since in essence, they've "killed" everything inside and you are starting out with a brand new immune system.
I'll update later and let you know how it all went. The nurse just came in to give him the pre-meds, which means they will start in 30-45 minutes, so I'll close and make sure Ed's gets his breakfast! Have a great day.
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ReplyDeleteThe nurse just came in to give him the pre-meds, which means they will start in 30-45 minutes, so I'll close and make sure Ed's gets his breakfast! Have a great day.
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