Drugged and Harvested

***written on Monday Feb. 4***
On Monday Feb. 4, Diane went to UCSF and had blood stem cells harvested, which are now "mine" she can’t have them back even if she wanted them! The goal was to collect between 3 million to 8 million cells for every 1 kilogram of my weight. Never an underachiever, she gave up 9.56 million. The process was not as pain free as advertised, but with the appropriate chemicals, she came through feeling OK! The process of getting the catheter installed took about 90 minutes and the harvesting took about 3.5 hours. Then we sat and waited to see if enough cells had been collected. All in all, we were at the hospital from 7AM until 6PM, a long day and the anticipated "fancy dinner" turned out to be cashew chicken at the Thai restaurant in our hotel. We went to bed almost immediately after dinner, and were asleep moments later.

Tomorrow I will head to the hospital for labs, X-Rays, EKG and then the catheter is to be installed, a process that requires sufficient sedation that I will be unable to eat or drink after 6AM. I can hardly wait! After that I will be admitted and chemo is to begin. Diane says this is the beginning of my recovery.

***written the evening of SUPER TUESDAY Feb. 5***
If life teaches us nothing it is that things rarely go as well as planned! We arrived at the hospital today, once again with only the clothes on my back, ready to begin my pre-hospitalization work-up. From start to finish I arrived at 9am and did not get to my room until after 4pm. Earlier in the day we met with the nurse practitioner and were made aware, again, that a rash that I have had for sometime persists, as does a "lower intestinal issue". After extensive review of both, it was determined that further tests will need to be run in order to have a baseline prior to transplant. The reasoning behind this is that the rash and GI Issue are common ways that Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD) presents later, and they want to ensure that if/when GVHD occurs that they are able to determine whether it’s a recurrence or GVHD.

Therefore, tomorrow they will biopsy the rash as well as do a colonoscopy to get a handle on what is happening and what may be causing it. They do not want this to sidetrack the transplant, however they are erring on the side of caution, the start date for Chemo has been pushed back roughly 2 days to the 7th and therefore the transplant is now slated for the 14th in order to allow the test results to come back. Due to the delays today I did not get to my room until after 4pm, and alas I do NOT have a view of the Golden Gate Bridge! I am however across from the nurses’ station so I know that when my call light goes on they will see it!

So while things have been pushed back slightly, we are still all systems go for Transplant next Week. It has been great having my sister Diane here, I know that she is beyond pleased to be a match and to provide more than enough stem cells for transplantation, and I know she would give me more if she thought I needed them! And I am thankful to have been lucky enough to have a family match! We will be sad to see her head back home tomorrow.

**a note from the Caretakers: Thank you to everyone who has called and been thinking of us, we greatly appreciate it. We know that many of you would like to talk with Rick, however, he has again requested that you refrain from calling the hospital directly. Please call his cell phone. If he is not available please leave a message he loves to hear from you all. Know that he does get the messages even if he is not able to call back. Additionally it is clearly apparent that the cats already miss Dad! All they want is a lap to sit on and someone to pet them, well Molly does Bella is still skittish, they aren’t used to being home alone so much :o)