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Tomato Basil Man
Shortly after my harvested stem cells, that had been frozen following their harvest several weeks ago, were infused back into my body, I started smelling like tomato basil soup. Kathy has the essential oil diffuser going full steam and is feeding me breath mints. Funny thing is, I cannot smell it. Smelling oddly is a by-product of the process and should last only three days.
Kathy and I stayed at the Medical Center Marriott Sunday night which has a sky bridge right into Methodist Hospital lobby. Methodist Transplant Center is where my transplant is taking place. Early Monday, we were admitted, but labs delayed getting a permanent room until noon. Then the fun began with being wheeled down to surgery to remove my previous internal port used for my immunomonoclonal targeted therapy over the past seven months and adding a new larger external port. This process was a piece of cake. Amazingly pain free. Back up to our room on the 15th floor, I was hooked up to many monitors and another lab and then the pre-transplant bags of various medicines started flowing through the new port into my body. I also received nausea pills. At 8:30 pm I started eating ice and popsicles to cool down my throat and mouth to help keep painful sores from forming. I also received two mouthwashes to gargle throughout the day. So far, so good. Then came the potent chemo infusion of Malphalan, which is intended to kill all the bad stuff—like cancer!—in my body. Yes, lots of blood tests and monitoring of my body. I did not have any reactions, God be praised!
We have a nice room with huge windows looking over the Houston Medical Center. When doctors and nurses and other staff come into the room they are impressed and say our room is so homey. One nurse even told us she thinks she has walked into a sanctuary every time she enters our room. That is because Kathy has made it so with wonderful items from home to cheer it up. We also brought an Alexa to play music in the room. We went out shopping before we left home for the transplant process and purchased some needed items. I needed many changes of comfortable clothing. We purchased eleven plain cotton t-shirts so that Kathy could cut a slit in the area of the port allowing the tubes to easily hang out and not be discombobulated under clothing. The nurses love this. We also purchased new bedding for Kathy’s bed in my room and she has a cozy bed area. I understand why the hospital requests a caregiver in the room. Kathy is busy helping me, relieving the staff of many tasks. I cannot express how blessed I am with a wife who is so awesome!
Tuesday was a rest day. It went by quickly. Methodist food is decent. I walk as much as possible, but when I am heavily monitored with machines, getting free is difficult.
Today was transplant day. Six bags of my earlier harvested stem cells were quickly infused. The stem cells had been harvested at the best possible time when my numbers were excellent after having received six months of therapy treatments. Following the infusion, I was able to be taken off several machines which allows me much more freedom of movement. We have been playing praise music in the room which is uplifting and comforting. The next ten days are challenging with the possibility of side effects of the transplant popping up. “There’s nothing better than you (God)” is playing now reminding me that God is in control. Trust in God’s mercy and kindness is my calling now. That brings peace to my heart and soul. Nothing is better than being lifted up by the Everlasting Arms of my Lord.
To one and all—thank you for your encouragement and prayers. You are a blessing in my life! Also, may you be blessed on your Thanksgiving celebrations. A thankful heart is a strong core to being at peace in difficult times as well as good times.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. First Thessalonians 5:18”
Praise Report—Kathy praying over each infusion bag of my stem cells as they were being pumped into my body.
Prayer Request—Strength for the days to follow and limited side effects.
INCARCERATION– AKA, STEM CELL TRANSPLANT
Kathy and I will head down to the Medical Center next Sunday, November 19. We will stay overnight at the Med Center Marriott since I have an early morning appointment at the Transplant Center at Methodist Hospital to begin the Stem Cell Transplant Process on the 20th.
Kathy and I met with my doctor team last Monday, November 6, for final labs and to sign my life away with all the paperwork required for the transplant. Today, we teleconferenced with the pharmacist at the Transplant Center to get all my meds in place. On Friday, my hair will be shorn as I will lose it anyway. That way I will not have to deal with it falling out when I am sick during the transplant process.
Here is a brief outline of what I can expect to experience:
Day -2 (Monday): Surgery to remove my current implanted port (not large enough for the many different medications to which I will be connected). Surgery to put in a new external port. Short break to test new port during which time I will begin eating ice to ward off, as best as possible, ulcers that develop in the mouth and esophagus as a result of chemo. Then, heavy dose of Melphalan, a potent chemo that will destroy all the stem cells in my body resulting in no immunity by the next morning.
Day -1 (Tuesday): A rest day. I could be weak and sick. They promise they will stay on top of my body’s reaction with medications.
Day 1 (Wednesday)- My previously collected stem cells which were as cancer free as possible after my immunomonoclonal targeted therapy over almost seven months will be infused back into my body. My body will not like this.
Days 2-9: My body will be reacting to the new stem cells and could be doing cart wheels. I will be on various medications as the doctors monitor my body.
Days 10-14: The infused stem cells will replant and begin to reproduce. (It is tremendously rare for the stem cells to not reproduce.)
Days 15-21: I should be feeling stronger. I will be monitored for the stem cell reproduction rate as the protein levels in my blood will indicate when I can be released from the transplant center.
Kathy will stay with me in the hospital. The rooms in the transplant center are large and quite nice. The entire floor of the transplant center is an isolation ward, not just my room, so as I feel better and stronger I can walk the area. I asked for a gosling down pillow for my bed and a meal of King Crab, and the doctors just laughed with me. Turns out I really am being incarcerated for at least three weeks.
As Kathy and I are together in the hospital room, we recognize it’s not just the two of us, but the Lord will be with us to bless us, not only through His guiding of medical wonders, but also in His Word and promise. May God make us a blessing to all who gather around us in this time.
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think—according to the power at work within us—to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen! (Ephesians 3:20-21)”
Prayer Request: Smooth processes. Limited side effects from the transplant process. Blessings on my doctors and staff who attend to me. A spirit of thanksgiving in my heart, no matter the outcome.
4.5 Million and Counting
I am now on a two month countdown to my stem cell transplant. My stem cell harvest at the Transplant Center, Methodist—Houston Medical Center, was a success. Kathy stayed at the Marriott across from Methodist while I was hospitalized for the procedure. I’ll be honest, while not painful, it was not my cup of tea, since it felt invasive. The catheter placed in my leg/groin was something I wanted to pull out soon after the surgery was completed. I needed this done since my arm veins were not sufficient for the procedure, and the femoral artery was the only option left.
I had been told that it could take up to three days of five hour daily sessions to collect enough stem cells for the transplant. I was prepared from that possibility. My first session was in the late morning after the catheter had been placed and stitched in my leg. I had a private nurse who stayed with me the entire time. The lead doctor of the unit fully explained to me what would happen during the stem cell harvest. Lying flat on my back, they hooked me up to the fancy, high tech machine through which my blood would flow and the stem cells would be removed. Tubing on the exit side of the machine brought the cleaned blood back into my body. I noticed my nurse who was monitoring the tech screens was very busy. Later, a man appeared also working on the machine. About one and a half hours into the procedure a main doctor from the hospital and the head of technology appeared at my bedside and informed me the, obviously, very expensive machine had a technology failure! A new machine was going to be brought in, and I would be disconnected from the defective machine and reconnected to the new one. The stem cells already collected would need to be discarded! Apologies were profuse and sincere. My nurse was more than solicitous. So, the five hour session turned into seven hours. The good news—in spite of the lost stem cells, they still gathered enough for the stem cell transplant! All praise to God! The average gathered for a transplant is 3 million cells. My blood yielded 4.5 million! After a night in the hospital for monitoring, I was released and got home earlier than anticipated.
I now have a two month break to recoup strength. I will take drugs, oral and infusion, to keep the multiple myeloma in check until mid October. I will be drug free for our trip to Patagonia. I now begin light exercise at The Club at Bonterra exercise facility, as well as walking. In mid October Kathy and I are able to go on our planned Patagonia adventure. I look forward to the spring time weather while there and the refreshing air of the Andes. My body will be, God willing, refreshed and strengthened for the grueling stem cell transplant process beginning in early November.
For the blessings of this multiple myeloma journey from my diagnosis to the immunomonoclonal targeted therapy to the stem cell harvest, I praise God with this doxology that ends the New Testament book of Philippians: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Praise Report: My blood yielded a healthy amount of usable stem cells for the coming transplant; they are now safely frozen and stored.
Prayer Request: For my body to regain the strength and stamina necessary for the stem cell transplant procedure in November.
PRESS ON
He was adamant that this was his SUV–not mine! Flummoxed, I stood in the sun in 100 degree heat, although I am not supposed to be in the hot sun with the drugs I am taking for the Multiple Myeloma. He held onto the door handle of the vehicle–(mine!)–and I knew better than to try to get past him. I quickly surmised that he must have some type of dementia, and I was also concerned for him being in the hot sun. He told me his wife would soon come out of the grocery store and “set me straight.” I had gone with Kathy to the grocery store on a late Sunday afternoon to get in some walking in the cool, air-conditioned setting while she shopped. When I tired, I told her I would go to our vehicle and wait. I used the phone app. to start the vehicle and turn on the AC. But the gentleman would not let me pass! Eventually, the store manager found the gentleman’s wife, and she came and whisked her husband away to their vehicle an aisle over. Frankly, I was now overly exhausted.
I have been extremely exhausted the last month. I was excited to think that I might be nearing the end of my current Multiple Myeloma treatments, and I awaited the meeting with my hematologist/oncologist to get the results of all my recent labs. When we met this past week, I had a very good report with one exception—my M-spike protein number was still too high. Bottom line: I have six more weeks of treatments. During this time I will also go to Houston Methodist Hospital in the downtown Medical Center for tests of my vital organs to see if I qualify for a stem cell transplant. Because I am nine years over the general cut off for the transplant, Medicare requires I pass these tests. My doctor and I agreed that I needed to know now if I qualify. The stem cell transplant can get the M-spike protein down to one in a million leading to minimal drug maintenance until the ‘bad’ protein elects to multiply again. If I do not qualify for the stem cell transplant, my doctors will use more drugs to work on lowering the M- protein. My doctor said he wants me to have every option available. Sounds good to me!
A bone-building drug was added to my treatment schedule two weeks ago. Medicare would not OK the drug my doctor prescribed and so a generic substitute was used. It did not work for me! My worst side effect was swollen eyes with deep socket pressure. This lasted for days. I informed my doctor and he said, “Now I have the proof I need to get the drug I prescribed approved.” Soon, with six more weeks of treatment scheduled, I will get my doctor’s preferred name brand drug.
I had informed my doctors as I began treatment that Kathy and I had a planned trip to Patagonia in South America in October. They did not forget and planned a way for us to go. Amazing, right! I told Kathy that I needed to get out in spite of my exhaustion and fatigue. So I do force myself to “up and at ’em!” Yesterday, we went for a joy ride to Galveston to celebrate our grandson’s eighth birthday, and we walked along the gulf shore for fifteen minutes. It was a very short time, but it was wonderfully refreshing!
I have nearly always had the “press on” attitude for life. It is taken from Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” While the Apostle Paul is reminding us we have a heavenly home, the ultimate prize, our earthly life is one of pressing forward until that day when we are called home. Yes, this adventure has twists and turns not in my control. Yes, some days are hard. Yes, God is always there! Yes, I (we) are called to “press on!”
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