Around 6 PM, my donated stem cells arrived in this freezer container along with technician Linda to thaw them in a warm water bath.
The nurses, Sarah RN and Beth RN made sure all of my lines in to my Trifusion Hickman Catheter were how they wanted them.
Above is the warm water bath and below are my frozen stem cells ready to be thawed.
Takes a whole team to get the stem cells ready for me. The team included Linda , Nicole RN, Beth RN, Sarah RN
The actual infusion of stem cells was done without a pump and took 12 minutes.
Throughout the stem cell transplant, I was totally drugged with 50 mg of IV Benadryl and 2 Tylenol - felt awful and couldn't follow what was going on...not a good feeling. In this photo, I'm trying to suck on a piece of hard candy to disguise the taste of the DSMO preservative they used to freeze my stem cells. Some people think the DSMO smell, which fills the room, smells like creamed corn, while others describe a garlic-like smell.
So, just 24 hours after I received the killing melphalan chemotherapy, they have returned my life saving stem cells to me. The stem cells just need to find their way to my bone marrow and set up "shop". This can take up to 2-3 weeks.
Jani and Faye Hummel stayed with me all day - very comforting to me since I couldn't think clearly due to the drugs.
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