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Today Dr. Kharya confirmed to Mom that her blood counts are very well, so we're looking at potentially harvesting tomorrow. Harvesting involves having a PICC line inserted (peripherally inserted central catheter) into the side of Mom's neck, with a tube that leads down into her chest.
They withdraw blood through one tube and it flows back into Mom's body through another. As the blood goes through a machine, the stem cells are collected and the rest are sent back. Dr. Rishi said it's similar to "skimming the top of milk to get cream".
After the stem cells are removed they are cryo-preserved until it's time to re-introduce them to her body. After harvesting has completed, Mom can begin the 7 days of chemotherapy to ablate her immune system. I'm a tad nervous about potential infection, but she's not worried.
Yesterday Mom experienced some moderate lower back pain. Bone pain is apparently fairly typical in GCSF injections, as it encourages the bone marrow to push the stem cells into the blood stream. Some Advil quickly helped relieve the discomfort.
Yesterday we finished watching The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, and then started watching a documentary called Cash for Kids, a story about a judge in Pennsylvania who was convicted of accepting money for sending juveniles to detention centers over minimal crime.
Mom's been spending some time getting to know the nurses here better. She likes asking them about their aspirations and why they enjoy being a nurse. There is one that is particularly sweet, shes very petite but nonetheless takes care of Mom well. There's always a smile on her face. Many of the nurses look quite young, but they've told us about how they went to school to pursue a 4-year Bachelors of Science in nursing. All in all, the staff here is very nice.
Mom is planning to head to bed early tonight, to make sure she's well rested for the day ahead, in the case that they are prepared to harvest her stem cells.
Not much else is happening, other than our typical daily routines. We're both missing home though.
They withdraw blood through one tube and it flows back into Mom's body through another. As the blood goes through a machine, the stem cells are collected and the rest are sent back. Dr. Rishi said it's similar to "skimming the top of milk to get cream".
After the stem cells are removed they are cryo-preserved until it's time to re-introduce them to her body. After harvesting has completed, Mom can begin the 7 days of chemotherapy to ablate her immune system. I'm a tad nervous about potential infection, but she's not worried.
Yesterday Mom experienced some moderate lower back pain. Bone pain is apparently fairly typical in GCSF injections, as it encourages the bone marrow to push the stem cells into the blood stream. Some Advil quickly helped relieve the discomfort.
Yesterday we finished watching The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, and then started watching a documentary called Cash for Kids, a story about a judge in Pennsylvania who was convicted of accepting money for sending juveniles to detention centers over minimal crime.
Mom's been spending some time getting to know the nurses here better. She likes asking them about their aspirations and why they enjoy being a nurse. There is one that is particularly sweet, shes very petite but nonetheless takes care of Mom well. There's always a smile on her face. Many of the nurses look quite young, but they've told us about how they went to school to pursue a 4-year Bachelors of Science in nursing. All in all, the staff here is very nice.
Mom is planning to head to bed early tonight, to make sure she's well rested for the day ahead, in the case that they are prepared to harvest her stem cells.
Not much else is happening, other than our typical daily routines. We're both missing home though.
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