Collected

After two 5-hour sessions hooked up to an apheresis machine, I have managed to get enough stem cells collected for three transplants. The goal was 9 million, and I managed 8.89M yesterday (we requested, but were not granted, a recount), and a paltry 2.4M today, but that was enough to creep over the finish line. Which was good, because the long steel needle that goes in one arm (that can't be moved for 5 hours) had visited both arms, and I didn't have any interest in seeing it anywhere near me for a third day.

We had to skip the nutrition class in order to eat lunch (priorities!) and then hustle Rosie to the airport, where it turned out Delta could not produce a plane to make her connection in Minneapolis, but was able to produce a bus that took no longer to cover the distance. Then back to Mayo to find that the hastily-prepared afternoon schedule had come slightly unraveled: reporting for blood work to check liver enzymes, we found that the lab had no active orders, which seemed to be the first example of internal miscommunication we encountered. Upon reporting upstairs for our meetings with transplant docs and nurses, though, it turned out that the blood had been collected this morning ahead of the stem cells and the lab results were already in, sparing me at least one blood draw.

So now we have a day off tomorrow, the central line will be installed Friday, big chemo on Saturday, rest on Sunday, and transplant (day 0) is Monday, July 11. The best is yet to come.