Apheresis Day!

Today was one of the days we were waiting for!  Apheresis Day!

We got to the hospital a little before 8.  It's amazing how different the campus feels on a Monday morning compared to a Sunday evening!  

First up - labs.  We were real excited to get these back as we've been pumping Andy full of Neupogen for the last 4 days!

Then we went over to the Grace Clinic for his Apheresis (or collection or harvest...whatever you want to call it).  

We waited a bit in the lobby and of course, we got to color...although sadly, I didn't have my pencil sharpener and the pencils were quite dull.  

We got checked into our room and given a complete tour of the Apheresis machine. This process is amazing.  Andy was basically a mad scientist's laboratory all day!  

We also started getting our lab results back.  Happy to report that after not having treatment for a few weeks, his protein numbers didn't change at all. His Hg held strong.  His ANC went from 3.6 to 33.55 and his White Blood Cell count went from 5.7 to 46.6.  Looks like Andy was ready for some harvesting.  

He got all hooked up and they started the process.  Once that started he was not allowed to leave his bed.  He could swing his legs over the side or stand if he needed, but for the most part.  Nothing.  At least with Andy being in the bed, I got the comfortable chair! :-)  Usually, I'm on the cheap chair in the corner (cancer patients get all the royal treatment!)

It was a long day.  We watched a lot of friends, I got some work done over a very slow internet, we did some crossword puzzles, and ate a lot of candy.  

Our Infusion Nurse (or maybe she's the care coordinator?) stopped by and provided us a few more details for next Monday's appointment (just a consult with Dr. A) and some more details of March 17 on...She said she'd get a preliminary count of the stem cells to determine if we needed to stick around for the Neupogen shots at 4 PM.  If we were borderline, she'd have us get the shots in preparation for another day of collection.  But if they felt good about the number of cells the collected, we could skip the shots today.  

We wrapped up a little after 3, walked some stuff to the car (because as our nurse kindly pointed out - we brought enough stuff to spend the night!) and waited for the call from Jeannie (the Infusion Nurse).  

Just a little before 4 she gave us a call - there were enough cells collected today that we do NOT need to come back tomorrow AND we don't need the Neupogen shots tonight.  Which means no shots for Andy today!!  

We're feeling pretty good today!  We had our minds wrapped around a 3 day harvest and he did it in 1.  Thank GOD our collection was uneventful.  No side effects, no reactions.  Nothing.  We're going to keep pumping Andy full of electrolytes, magnesium, and potassium tonight (which, we learned can all be obtained through...CUSTARD!) and let his body rest.  

Now his little cells have been thrown in the freezer until they are ready to be thawed out in two weeks.  These will be the longest, fastest two weeks of our lives.