I’m here in treatment room B, where my friend Joyce is just starting the SCT process. She recorded a note for you all. :)
Category: Durham
Things aren’t as terrible as I’ve been imagining all these years. That’s not to say that I think it would have been better for me to have the SCT up front. There’s no way I can know how my awful anxiety would have affected the transplant processs.
I have a bit of mucositis and thrush. Nothing painful. Just annoying.
This was day+6. My counts were as follows:
HGB: 11.4
WBC: 1.3
PLT: 50
I also tried my my hand at a podcast, just to see how that goes. Most days I don’t really feel like typing. I make too many typos, and I get bored with it too easily. I can’t remember when was the last time I felt so bored and just wanted to sleep, like I do now.
It’s day +5. My WBC is now 1.7. Not much happened today. I got some fluids. My blood pressure was pretty low.
Amy asked how the re-infusion went. I hated that part. She mentioned that was a prime opportunity for nausea to creep in. I had some Zofran, Ativan and some oxycodone in my IV. If you even anticipate needing these things, make sure you get them. Also, ask for a slow infusion. There’s less discomfort that way.
Th
is is day +4. It’s also Kathy’s birthday, so we’re wearing hats. I think I might be the only one wearing a hat.
Here are my lab values for today:
Hgb: 10.7 g/dL (ref range: 12.0 – 15.5)
Plt: 104 (ref range: 150-450)
WBC: 2.8 (ref range: 3.2 – 9.8)
There’s more, but I’ll add that later.
So far, I’ve expererienced mild nausea a few times. We all know how afraid I was of that. In fact, it made me put off the SCT for years. I find that if I just keep eating small snacks, it makes me feel better. I try not to let myself get hungry.
I should be getting out of here for the day. I’ll probably take a quick nap when I get back to the apartment, and then try to catch up on some work.
More soon!
This will be day +3. Yesterday wasn’t too terrible. I had a few periods of nausea. A local Reiki practictioner came to the apartment to help me through the second one. It really did help. I ended up asleep, which was good. If you’ve had a stem cell rescue of any kind, I wonder if you experienced the intense discomfort I did when the cells were being infused? I felt pressure/discomfort/pain across my midsection. It was unpleasant. I don’t mean to scare anyone, but if that did happen to you too, you weren’t alone. I have a way to go before I can go home. They expect that I could go as early as day +16. Right now I feel just fine. When I wake up for real, in a couple of hours, I’ll try to find my labs and record them here.
This is my first day of simply recovering, after having had stem cells infused for 2 days. I felt pretty queasy this morning, so I spent a while in the clinic with some IV Zofran and Ativan. I’m not sure what caused this to happen, since I felt fine on the way to the clinic. I kind of just wish I could stay home now. I think schlepping into the clinic causes problems. There’s nothing that can be done about that though.
I had a good laugh, which really did help me to feel better for a bit. Now I think I’ll rest for a while. Then I have to make myself exercise! They say it can help.
Even though I’m still having more stem cells infused today, it’s still called day +1. Yesterday was uncomfortable. I believe it was a reaction to the preservative, DMSO. I felt a great deal of pressure and discomfort in my chest while the stem cells were being infused. Luckily, there are fewer to do today.
I’m keeping up on the ativan and compazine to try to avoid any nausea. So far, I’ve felt a little queasy, but nothing major. I’ve been told that after day 5, I should be past that.
My iPod broke last night, so Todd went and got another one for me. I have some things to transfer over.
I just saw Dr. Long, who is a great doctor. I highly recommend him if you’re in the market for a stem cell transplant.