Collection a Success

What a relief! The collection of stem cells has been a success - they collected 4 million today so that gives us 1 million over the mark. Dave's pretty happy as that means no more growth factor shots. We can now have a quiet weekend; he only needs to have lab draws every day. They do that through his Hickman catheter which makes it fast and painless. We might even get to see some Seattle attractions if he feels up to it. After having such a busy week, he wears out pretty fast.

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Making Progress

Another day of stem cell harvesting, and they have now collected 2.5 million stems cells (the goal being 5 million). We are pretty excited about that. The day again started at 7:30 with lab, followed by platelet infusion. Dave again had a reaction to the platelets even after being pre-medicated with Benadryl. Next time they will pre-medicate him with both Benadryl and a steroid, and will infuse the platelets slower. Sure hope that helps. He is having a blood transfusion now and should be done shortly. It sure makes for long days. Tomorrow is basically the same schedule and we sure are hoping they can harvest the remaining 2.5 million; it would really be nice to have a break this weekend, but we will do whatever it takes!

Too Tired

Will make this post short, as we are both really tired! Dave had his first stem harvest today and it was an amazing process. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. The day started out at 7 a.m. with lab, growth factor shots, transfusion of platelets, harvesting stem cells, blood transfusion, more shots. Everything actually went well, but Dave reacted to the transfusion of platelets and developed hives. They administered Benadryl IV along with steroids and he did fine. I understand that isn't uncommon. He will now be pre-medicated before they give him platelets. Last night he also developed quite severe bone pain (a side-effect of the growth factor shots), but it's controlled with pain medication. Tomorrow, basically he will do the same thing and, hopefully, collect more stem cells as today wasn't too profitable. I was so happy to see Brenda Howke today who is here with her 3 yr. old daughter, Shelby, who has leukemia. Brenda is Steve Howke's wife and they are Whitefish people also! It was so good to see a familiar face and to hear that Shelby is doing well.

Mailing Address

We have had quite a few requests for our mailing address so here it is:
Residence Inn by Marriott; 800 Fairview Ave. North; Suite 201; Seattle, WA 98109
Phone #(206)624-6000; suite 201

Right on Track

Things are progressing fast and today was a whirlwind of appointments. After having lab draw at 9:30, the next stop was to the clinic nurse for administration of 3 Neupogen (growth factor) injections. We then met with the nutritionist where we got an A+!!! Nothing like being graded on what I fix for Dave's dinner! I then went to a class on food preparation and safety while Dave went to the hotel for a break and to spend a little time with Ripley. He met up with me at 1:00 for a "Managing Care at Home" class, which was 2 hrs. of mind-boggling information. It's a good thing they gave handouts, or we would really be in rough shape! Then onto Dave's last appointment of the day, which was a pulmonary function test, he did well with that also. I did have a surprise waiting for Dave when he was through, as I managed to get him a free ticket to the Mariner's game tonight from the cancer center. Wow - was he ever happy about that! The SCCA occasionally gets free "suite" tickets so that immunosuppressed patients may attend a Mariner's game and not be in the huge crowd. Dave was able to go with a wonderful couple we met who are from Spokane. I elected to stay home with Ripley as he had been alone for most of the day. That's where Dave is right now and I know he is enjoying every minute of it. It's nice to have a little normalcy. Tomorrow is a HUGE DAY and a step in the right direction - they will start to harvest his stem cells. This procedure is called apheresis and takes approximately 3 hours. It may take several days of apheresis to collect enough stem cells (5 million) for the transplant. He will continue daily blood draws and growth factor shots during this phase.

Moving Right Along

Things are actually happening faster than we expected. While in a meeting with the social worker today, our nurse interrupted us to let us know that Dave needed to go back to the lab because his blood counts were actually going up (a good sign), and it looks promising that they will start to harvest his stem cells within the next few days. We really didn't expect that until the end of the week, if even then. His CD34 (growth factor)is a little low so Dave will be receiving 2 Neupogen (growth factor) shots twice daily until that reaches the appropriate level. He did receive 1 unit of blood today as his hematocrit was also a little low. It is just amazing how thorough they are - we feel real good about that. Great news is that he has gained another 3 lbs! He's starting to look more like his "old self" again. His attitude still remains positive and even with "chemo brain" he still has a good sense of humor. Just a reminder that you may post a comment if you would like. You will see a link "comments" after each entry. We love hearing from everyone. Thank you so much!

Happy Anniversary

Today we celebrated our 34th anniversary by walking across the street for a bowl of Duke's Chowderhouse clam chowder, and boy was it good. Dave's appetite is still good, so that's a relief! He had his normal lab draw this morning at 8:15, then we met with his nurse at 1 p.m. They keep real close track of him and he sees a nurse daily. Tomorrow he has lab at 9:00 and nurse appointment at 9:30. He still has to give himself his Neupagen shots for 2 more days, and the neuropathy in his feet hasn't gotten any better.

REST!!

Nice quiet day today! Dave went in for lab at 8:15 and that was it for today. He's beginning to get some mouth sores from the last chemo, but is handling that well. We took a nice walk across the street to check out the yahts in the bay (Lake Union), and really enjoyed that. Weather is perfect, in the mid-70's. I had a chance to catch the shuttle to downtown and roam around - what a nice break that was. Unfortunately, a woman walking across the street got hit by a big bus, but I don't think was hurt too badly. It sure blocked traffic for awhile. Tomorrow and Sunday are just lab draws for Dave, so we should have a relatively "normal" weekend. Oh, almost forgot -- Dave is doing great giving himself two shots a day!! I'll have to take over if he gets too sick to do that himself; hopefully, that doesn't happen.

Better Day

Things went a little smoother today and Dave is doing remarkably well. He had lab at 8:15 a.m. and then he had a chest x-ray at 10:00, a dressing change at 10:15, and then we had a break until 1:15. We then met with one of the transplant physicians and had an hour conference with him. They are just amazing here and we haven't met one of the transplant team that we were uncomfortable with. As it goes right now, they are still planning on using Dave's stem cells. They should start collecting those in a week to 10 days. We had good news just in case Dave's stem cells are not able to be used or they can't retrieve enough of them (5 million). Out of four brothers who have already been tested as a donor - there is a match with Dave's brother, Richard. That's good because they don't have to look for an "universal donor". There are actually six brothers, but because of problems with addresses only four have been able to be tested.

Another good bit of information, Ripley is doing better so we are able to keep him with us. It will take a little getting used to, but I think it will work fine thanks to Whitefish Animal Hospital who is sending us some "doggie downers" to help out for awhile.

Tomorrow should be a relatively quiet day with lab at 8:15 a.m. , an appointment at 9:15 and then we have the weekend to rest up.