So, I had my question answered as to how a person would feel without stem cells? No different. I have had a good week, feeling stronger each day. When I feel like wearing my shoes instead of slippers and have the energy to do a little treadmill each day, I know my body is gradually coming back from the chemo and healing.
Only one trip to the hospital this week and that was to treat a UTI, but they were on top of it and started me on the antibiotic even before I left the clinic. Since my body is more susceptible to infections, they wanted to nip it in the bud.
With my daughter getting married mid December, I will not be able to attend her reception since it will be during my critical healing period where I need to avoid as many germs as possible. I had the idea to ask our wedding photographer, Bruce Barnes, if he could take a picture of me now, while I was feeling good, and then paste me into the wedding line shots. He agreed to work with me on this, so I had a fun week preparing for the shoot. Monday, Kathy and I went to the Chandler Hospital Cancer wig room and picked out an updated short, brown wig to wear. These are wigs that people donate to the cancer society. Then my sweet mother spent 4 hours shopping at the mall and bought me a deep purple, sequined jacket to wear with my black skirt. Whoo hoo! It was totally out of my closet comfort zone, but I dressed up and went to the photo shoot on Friday.
We took the pictures in his home with a white background and with his technical knowledge, I’m sure it will look like I’m right there. He took several shots of me at different standing angles, and will choose one, depending on how I will best fit in the line. He took some shots with my wig and then bald. I want a shot to show the real story.
On Friday afternoon my mother, son, two sisters, and a niece spent 3 1/2 hours at the hospital attending a class for caregivers. They received very specific instructions about food preparation, home cleanliness, and care for me once I am home from the transplant. They will pack up everything in my home that can collect dust, all my knickknacks and pictures, clean the carpets, wash the curtains, empty my frig and freezer, to mention a few things. I spent the afternoon during the time they were in the class teary eyed and so grateful for such wonderful family who will give up their afternoon for me. Even now as I write this I feel so blessed and humbled by their love and support. Oh, that everyone would have a chance to feel this!
My tests are scheduled for T/W/Th next week and then I will meet with the Dr. to go over the results and find out when I will begin their chemo. When my case manager showed me the schedule, and I found out I was going to be later starting the next phase than I had expected, rather than look on the positive side that I would be able to be home longer, I was upset at her for being slow about this. Then I remembered that she may be my case manager, but my true guide through this is still in charge and everything will be just right according to His time schedule. I continue to pray that I don’t miss out on what He is trying to teach me. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I feel it.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Fall Harvest Miracle
Fall leaves, autumn smells, it’s time to harvest Karen’s cells! I was part of a scientific miracle on Saturday. I received a call Friday afternoon, after visiting the hospital that morning for labwork and another platelet transfusion, telling me that my numbers were good for the first collection and to return at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Another angel friend drove me at the crack of dawn to begin the process and stayed the entire 7 hours.
After drawing my blood to get information for them to prepare the machine, we played the waiting game. Two hours later I went to the 9th floor, designated for kidney patients and stem cell harvesting. I had a great tech who stayed with me the entire process and explained everything very clearly. They used two of my ports to hook me to the machine, one for in and the other for out. I had to lay flat on a bed for 4 hours, except when I got to sit to use a bed pan. (Good thing!)
Kyle helped explain the process so I could share it in my blog. It is actually called a peripheral blood stem cell collection. A Phresis machine collected 230 ml of a combination of my white blood cells, stem cells, and plasma, over a period of 4 hours. The machine separates the blood into different layers. They take out the WBC layer and plasma, and the rest goes back into my body. Then the cryo lab tests it, takes a sample, and it is sent out to another lab to be counted. They add a medicine to the collection and slowly freeze it down. After my chemo, it will be thawed and reinfused. They saved my plasma for possible future use.
During the procedure I also get citrate, an anticoagulant, which binds with calcium in the bloodstream. I had a calcium drip, tums, and milk to drink, to prevent a citrate reaction, but because I am a small body size, I experienced a reaction and needed to have additional calcium. The reaction was a tingling through my body and small shaking as if I were chilled. Kyle kept the situation under control, so it wasn’t too bad. They needed a total of 2 million stem cells and told me I would get a call later to tell me if I needed to return on Monday for another collection. I had met people who had been collected 3 times and one poor man had to do it 7 times. They told me it was unusual to collect the amount needed the first time, so I expected to return on Mon. when Kathy would be with me to see the process.
However . . . . they called and told me they had collected 2.4 million and I was done! I call that a miracle! I came home with a small headache, but thinking about what my body had just been through, this was amazing.
It’s now Sunday morning and I feel great. I have such praise and thankfulness to my Heavenly Father for helping me complete this important part of the process. This also means I can stop the daily shots, yahoo! My chemo will be the end of the month and prior to that I will be having different tests, PetScan, CT scan, and Muga (heart scan).
After drawing my blood to get information for them to prepare the machine, we played the waiting game. Two hours later I went to the 9th floor, designated for kidney patients and stem cell harvesting. I had a great tech who stayed with me the entire process and explained everything very clearly. They used two of my ports to hook me to the machine, one for in and the other for out. I had to lay flat on a bed for 4 hours, except when I got to sit to use a bed pan. (Good thing!)
Kyle helped explain the process so I could share it in my blog. It is actually called a peripheral blood stem cell collection. A Phresis machine collected 230 ml of a combination of my white blood cells, stem cells, and plasma, over a period of 4 hours. The machine separates the blood into different layers. They take out the WBC layer and plasma, and the rest goes back into my body. Then the cryo lab tests it, takes a sample, and it is sent out to another lab to be counted. They add a medicine to the collection and slowly freeze it down. After my chemo, it will be thawed and reinfused. They saved my plasma for possible future use.
During the procedure I also get citrate, an anticoagulant, which binds with calcium in the bloodstream. I had a calcium drip, tums, and milk to drink, to prevent a citrate reaction, but because I am a small body size, I experienced a reaction and needed to have additional calcium. The reaction was a tingling through my body and small shaking as if I were chilled. Kyle kept the situation under control, so it wasn’t too bad. They needed a total of 2 million stem cells and told me I would get a call later to tell me if I needed to return on Monday for another collection. I had met people who had been collected 3 times and one poor man had to do it 7 times. They told me it was unusual to collect the amount needed the first time, so I expected to return on Mon. when Kathy would be with me to see the process.
However . . . . they called and told me they had collected 2.4 million and I was done! I call that a miracle! I came home with a small headache, but thinking about what my body had just been through, this was amazing.
It’s now Sunday morning and I feel great. I have such praise and thankfulness to my Heavenly Father for helping me complete this important part of the process. This also means I can stop the daily shots, yahoo! My chemo will be the end of the month and prior to that I will be having different tests, PetScan, CT scan, and Muga (heart scan).
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Good News!
I was blessed with a great diversion for my mind at this time. My daughter, Aubri, officially announced her engagement to Bryan Blacker from Albuquerque. They have set their date as Dec. 18. As much as I had encouraged her associations with local boys, he is so worth it, no matter where he is from. I first met him during the 4th of July weekend, when he came to Gilbert. I missed him when he left, just like I miss my own children. I am looking forward to having him in our family.
They met last year in their ward at BYU and were family group leaders the first semester. However, I think the real clincher was the anatomy class they had together winter semester. It was not just the class, but everything else that went with it, labs, review sessions, and their own study sessions. Ah, true love.
So, while I am home and between hospital visits, I am having fun exploring leads from friends on websites for photographers, caterers, dresses, flowers, and announcements. Things are starting to come together. I send an email to Aubri and she emails back. What would we do without technology? I may even be attending the reception via Skype, depending on my condition at that time.
After Friday’s visit to the hospital, I will have been there three mornings this week. Mostly for lab work, but when they feel a need, other things, as well. I ended up having platelet transfusions Monday and Wednesday. Yummy yellow. My counts have bottomed out this week, which they had expected, so I had to begin preventive infection measures, which included ending the meal deliveries for now. It has been a good time for me to use the food that I had frozen as extra, so it’s worked out. They are beginning to count my stem cells each draw, then call me the same afternoon to tell me if it’s time for the harvest. I could be doing it on Saturday or Monday early morning. The process is similar to dialysis where the blood is drawn and the cells sorted. They keep the ones they want and I get the others back. Then my cells are frozen until after their chemo.
My sisters each took a short fall break with their families, so I have had a sweet nurse friend come and take over my shot and site dressing while they are gone. I will continue to tell you how this is truly a journey with many angels.
I could be sad about the thought of missing my daughter’s most special time of her life, (and I sometimes let myself go there), but I continue to believe there is a reason to the timing of everything. I have found that those ah-ha moments don’t come until after the fact, if at all. I have given up trying to second guess the Master Planner, for He can see the beginning to the end. I know beyond all doubt that He is aware of each of us and our individual needs.
They met last year in their ward at BYU and were family group leaders the first semester. However, I think the real clincher was the anatomy class they had together winter semester. It was not just the class, but everything else that went with it, labs, review sessions, and their own study sessions. Ah, true love.
So, while I am home and between hospital visits, I am having fun exploring leads from friends on websites for photographers, caterers, dresses, flowers, and announcements. Things are starting to come together. I send an email to Aubri and she emails back. What would we do without technology? I may even be attending the reception via Skype, depending on my condition at that time.
After Friday’s visit to the hospital, I will have been there three mornings this week. Mostly for lab work, but when they feel a need, other things, as well. I ended up having platelet transfusions Monday and Wednesday. Yummy yellow. My counts have bottomed out this week, which they had expected, so I had to begin preventive infection measures, which included ending the meal deliveries for now. It has been a good time for me to use the food that I had frozen as extra, so it’s worked out. They are beginning to count my stem cells each draw, then call me the same afternoon to tell me if it’s time for the harvest. I could be doing it on Saturday or Monday early morning. The process is similar to dialysis where the blood is drawn and the cells sorted. They keep the ones they want and I get the others back. Then my cells are frozen until after their chemo.
My sisters each took a short fall break with their families, so I have had a sweet nurse friend come and take over my shot and site dressing while they are gone. I will continue to tell you how this is truly a journey with many angels.
I could be sad about the thought of missing my daughter’s most special time of her life, (and I sometimes let myself go there), but I continue to believe there is a reason to the timing of everything. I have found that those ah-ha moments don’t come until after the fact, if at all. I have given up trying to second guess the Master Planner, for He can see the beginning to the end. I know beyond all doubt that He is aware of each of us and our individual needs.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Good Sam Hospital Work Begins
Whew. This has been a whirlwind week! I was released from Baywood hosp. on Mon. after the chemo and did better than the other two rounds, which I had hoped. My mother told me she had prayed for a good room for me and she is a woman of much faith. The nurses referred to my room as the corner suite of the 6th floor. It was big and roomy, but the best part was the full length window looking east and south. I actually saw a sunrise one morning. I was also located near the helicopter pad, so heard a few of those takeoff and land. I had a friend once tell me that whenever she heard sirens she would pray for the victims, so I prayed each time one would land.
Tuesday morning my sister, Kathy, and I had a meeting at Good Sam to begin our journey there, running all kinds of bloodwork and tests. The transplant center is the 12th floor and they are their own little entity. No check in needed at any registration desk, up the service elevators (to avoid public as much as possible), and right to a nurse. They gave me a new duck bill mask that I will be wearing which is much tighter, but because it protrudes, my lips don’t touch the material. I quacked at a few others wearing them as we passed. Kathy was briefly instructed on how to give me my daily shot to increase my WBC, then in my belly it went. No orange practice there and she did great.
Wed. Mark took me over for the surgical implant of my new neostar catheter. He was a trooper and said all the right things. Sometimes he worries that because he’s a guy he doesn’t know how to make it better. But he does great! I had a pic line before, tiny, served it’s purpose. Well, the nurses referred to these tubings as garden hoses. Now, that’s exaggerating somewhat, considering the three are flopping out of my chest. That was a bad day getting rid of the anesthesia effects, via throw up bags and nausea, but family was with me through the day and Kathy spent the night while I got my strength back.
Thursday, Kathy and I were back again for her instruction of flushing and daily dressing of my port. Again, quick demo, follow the written instructions, and Kathy was doing me first, and then more practice on a mannequin. If you don’t know Kathy, let me share with you how amazing she is. She felt prompted to begin nursing classes last year because she had seen many nice nurses with my previous care and she wanted to be one of those. She took a class each semester and did terrific! Then she was prompted to hold off this fall. Well, we now see it is because she is enrolled in nursing residency 101 with me! She will come early each morning to take care of me and eventually my other family members will join in 24/7 care at home after the procedure. My other 2 sisters are just as amazing. One will step in with her love and talent, then the other one takes over, and now my parents are back in town to help also. I couldn’t do this without family and friends. It is a commitment for all!
The shots will continue until the Dr. feels I have reached a level for the stem cell harvest, which could be as early as next week. After harvest I wait until the end of the month for their stronger chemo. Not sure how a person feels without their stem cells. Guess I will ask when I return tomorrow for more tests.
My love and gratitude go out to each of you in helping me fight this battle. We’re moving ahead! The Lord is truly blessing me.
Tuesday morning my sister, Kathy, and I had a meeting at Good Sam to begin our journey there, running all kinds of bloodwork and tests. The transplant center is the 12th floor and they are their own little entity. No check in needed at any registration desk, up the service elevators (to avoid public as much as possible), and right to a nurse. They gave me a new duck bill mask that I will be wearing which is much tighter, but because it protrudes, my lips don’t touch the material. I quacked at a few others wearing them as we passed. Kathy was briefly instructed on how to give me my daily shot to increase my WBC, then in my belly it went. No orange practice there and she did great.
Wed. Mark took me over for the surgical implant of my new neostar catheter. He was a trooper and said all the right things. Sometimes he worries that because he’s a guy he doesn’t know how to make it better. But he does great! I had a pic line before, tiny, served it’s purpose. Well, the nurses referred to these tubings as garden hoses. Now, that’s exaggerating somewhat, considering the three are flopping out of my chest. That was a bad day getting rid of the anesthesia effects, via throw up bags and nausea, but family was with me through the day and Kathy spent the night while I got my strength back.
Thursday, Kathy and I were back again for her instruction of flushing and daily dressing of my port. Again, quick demo, follow the written instructions, and Kathy was doing me first, and then more practice on a mannequin. If you don’t know Kathy, let me share with you how amazing she is. She felt prompted to begin nursing classes last year because she had seen many nice nurses with my previous care and she wanted to be one of those. She took a class each semester and did terrific! Then she was prompted to hold off this fall. Well, we now see it is because she is enrolled in nursing residency 101 with me! She will come early each morning to take care of me and eventually my other family members will join in 24/7 care at home after the procedure. My other 2 sisters are just as amazing. One will step in with her love and talent, then the other one takes over, and now my parents are back in town to help also. I couldn’t do this without family and friends. It is a commitment for all!
The shots will continue until the Dr. feels I have reached a level for the stem cell harvest, which could be as early as next week. After harvest I wait until the end of the month for their stronger chemo. Not sure how a person feels without their stem cells. Guess I will ask when I return tomorrow for more tests.
My love and gratitude go out to each of you in helping me fight this battle. We’re moving ahead! The Lord is truly blessing me.
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