Today, my journey on the road to stem cell transplantation began. We started out for Richmond early, about 5:30 in the morning, to make a 7:30 appointment at the Bone Marrow Transplant unit. The purpose of the visit was twofold; to begin getting Neupogen shots to boost the number of stem cells in my blood, and to put in more ports to enable the apherisis machine to collect my stem cells. Since I'll be getting shots all weekend, Jane also needed training in administering them. Her first efforts went great, and my arm isn't the least bit sore. She's like a professional.
As a side note I'm getting double the Neupogen dose that I got during chemotherapy. It'll be interesting to see how that treats me. When I took the Neupogen before, during my first round of chemo, the shots had the principal effect of making my bones feel like they were going to pop.
The new ports (they call them catheters) were put in while I was under conscious sedation. In short, it wasn't a bad procedure at the time. That changed when the sedation part ended, and I moved back into the realm of consciousness. So here I sit with a throbbing in my chest. I'm sure it'll get better with a few days of rest. We also have an exciting weekend planned with the girls, and that will usually take my mind off of the little aches and pains.
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