One hurdle overcome

Today was a successful day for me, unlike for the Broncos. Bev and I arrived at the hospital around 7am to have blood drawn to see where my counts stand. After the first quick test, they said my white counts had risen from .1 on Saturday to 2.3 today. To get set for collection they had to do one other test and that result would determine whether we would start collection today or not. It was funny but they asked me if I was in pain. I told them I had bone pain all night and hurt and they said "that's great!". They weren't really happy I was in pain but that was a good sign. Like I had hoped, stem cells were coming out of my bone marrow. We had to wait for the second test so we went to breakfast and returned at 9:30. They had good news, I was ready.

By the time I was hooked up to the machine, it was 10am. They estimated I had 5 liters of blood and were going to pull out 1.05ml per minute. (I think that is what she told me.) Of the three tubes coming out of my chest, one was hooked up to draw the blood out into the machine, and one was hooked up for the return. She told me only about 1.5 cups of blood would actually ever be outside my body at any one time. The blood would be mixed with an anticoagulant to prevent the blood clotting in the machine but then dissipates rapidly once returned to the body. This could have caused a calcium deficiency but in my case that never happened. The machine works like a centrifuge separating out the different items in the blood into levels. Then the white cell level is captured into a bag and the rest of the blood is then returned. I watched to find out how long at my rate that my entire body blood supply would take to go through the machine, it turned out to be about 55 minutes.

After that I slept for a while as the process was to take about five hours. Unlike chemo where you can take the IV pole with you to the bathroom or in the hall, you cannot leave this machine until the process finishes. So I sat, slept, talked to Bev, had lunch, use a urinal, slept some more then finally got done around 3pm. They had to finish with more blood tests to see how many cells they collected. The minimum needed for transplant was 2 million, the doctor wanted 5 million. But they wouldn't have the results until about 6 or 7pm. So we went back to Jeff and Sara's house where they fixed us a nice dinner and waited. The nurse called and said I would not have to return tomorrow as they had collected 15 million cells out of me. Three times what was needed. In only one day. No wonder I was feeling so much pain! LOL! Sara said I was an overachiever. I am very happy. One leg of this journey is now done.

In an amazing moment during the day, Kris, Pam's partner found us inside PSL as we were walking before the last blood test. Kris works at PSL and said she was keeping an eye out for us. Only the three of us were in the same hall at the same time in a huge hospital full staff and patients. It was meant to be! And made me feel good to talk to her!

Tomorrow, I will be tested for platelet count. If high enough I will be able to proceed with my prostate biopsy. If too low, they will postpone so that there will be no complications with bleeding. I hope to be able to complete that task to stay on track with my timeline, then return to Fort Collins to prepare for our Sunday move.

God bless each and every one of you for your support.