I’ll admit it, I haven’t felt like blogging at all, and that’s why I haven’t updated this blog sooner. But here we are and here I am, so let’s get on with the update!
At the end of April we were able to complete all of the shots needed to get my body to generate stem cells. Collection the following week went smoothly… the goal was to collect 10 million cells, and we got 10.9 million in about a few hours.
From there, it was on to the transplant. I checked into the hospital (St. David’s South Austin Medical Center) on Tuesday, May 5, and we got right to the high-dose chemo on the same day. Two days later was the “transplant”, which essentially was a large syringe of my cells being pushed back into me. That all went smoothly.
Now it’s just a matter of riding out the waves of effects: some nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and fatigue. Overall it hasn’t been fun, but hasn’t been absolutely horrible either. Days are counted with transplant being day +0, so today we’re at +8, and the worst of the effects are typically around day +7 or so. My ANC is currently at zero, and white blood cell count is less than 0.2, so I’m in the think of the expected cell count drops.The staff is always ready with meds for whatever is needed… I’ve found what works for my nausea and we medicate to stay ahead of it. Hair loss is expected, but that’s no big deal to me.
Every precaution is being taken with my immune system being temporarily shut down (especially with COVID-19 being in full swing). This means no visitors at all. It’s completely understandable, but was still pretty hard on my wife since she wasn’t even able to come up and help me get settled in. Just dropping me off at the door was pretty tough. I’m just thankful that we life in the era where FaceTime is readily available, so we’re not completely separated.
Most stem cell transplant patients are discharged around day +12, so it shouldn’t be long before we are on the upswing of this ride. Dialysis still sucks, bu as we round the corner I’m looking forward to improved performance from the kidneys.
The next update will probably come around discharge day, so stay tuned!