Stem Cell Harvest Day 2 of Cycle 2 - September 7 2011

I drove myself to the University of Colorado Hospital this morning for my 2nd Day of stem cell harvest in this second attempt to get better stem cells for transplant. When I arrived, I found out that I yielded 5.28 million stem cells yesterday which is quite good.

My blood revealed that I was more anemic than ever this morning with a Hemoglobin of 7.8, so they decided to give me 2 units of A+ Positive blood. First, Martin, RN had to give me 2 bags of magnesium, because my magnesium was low too. I've never had a blood transfusion before ever - so, this was new to me. Their protocol at UCH is to give Benadryl and Tylenol just prior to any blood transfusion and I talked Martin, RN in to giving me about 1/2 of the Benadryl since I needed to drive home later. Sure enough, the Benadryl put me to sleep for well over an hour!

My doctor, Han Myint, MD came in to see me for a few minutes with my partial bone marrow biopsy results from the procedure done September 1 2011.

All of the chromosomal changes that I had in my 2nd bone marrow biopsy are gone, but I have a barely visible new one. However, Dr. Myint feels I am ready for transplant and can use the stem cells that I collected yesterday and today.  They are predicting that I will collect 13 million stem cells today based on on my CD34 count of 120 today (which is soaring). Compare to my previous stem cell harvest dates below:

Finished up the stem cell harvest before my 2nd unit of blood was in. Martin RN writing all the numbers they need for the stem cell collection.

After my 2nd unit of blood was finished, Martin RN changed my Trifusion Hickman Catheter dressing. I had quite a few "crusties" that needed to be cleaned off today - but, the site looks good.