Collection

Well, I finished collecting yesterday. Collecting is what we in the business refer to as collecting our stem-cells. Luckily I was able to finish in four days --- which was a surprise to many, or, at least my parents and my doctors. The average is about four days but some people finish in two or take as long as five to six days (which is sort of what we expected with me considering how much chemo I'd already had). Collecting is really no big deal --- the actual process anyway --- the results are very important. Every day I would go into the apheresis room for collection then have to get a unit or two of platelets and two growth factor shots. For the actual collecting process, a nurse would hook me up to a machine (it looks like something out of Young Frankenstein) and I would sit there for four hours while blood was sucked out of me, my stem-cells would be filtered out and my blood pumped back in. The worst part of it was that I would get really cold. They had blankets they kept in a warming oven that would help keep me warm (for awhile) and handwarmers (like hunters use when they get cold). Otherwise I just sat there. Oh, I could watch The View (the show has gotten much better with Rosie. Don't you think?)

Anyway, now it's on to Bexxar on Thursday then stem-cell transplant (which I'll probably start the day after Valentines --- I can't believe it's February already! I've been up here for three months already!!!)