Tuesday 12 June 2007

Nowhere near as bad as I expected

Well I can very gladly report that the Melphalan drug I received yesterday did not live up to its expectation. I did have some very strong anti nausea tablets but I did not need any tranquilisers. The day was actually quite bareable. I felt a little off for most of the day and food did nothing to interest me but they day passed without event. I was even up for a visitor at night and Jane popped in for a chat.
Today I faired a little worse but still in the scheme of things pretty good. I woke feeling great but then took small slides all day. At 11.30am I received my stem cells back (they are transfused into me just like a blood transfusion). This time I stayed awake for it - after they gave me all the drugs that usually put you to sleep (just in case you react to the storage solution you need to have pre meds), I got out of bed and sat in a chair determined to stay awake for it. And I was rewarded - this time I got to see the scientist bring in the big steel cylinder on wheels with the stem cells stored safely inside. Then there was another machine where the water was warmed to 37 degrees exactly. Then once everything was set up and ready the scientist took my stem cells out of the steel cylinder (it looked really cool as steam billowed out when he opened the lid - such a bummer my brain did not kick into gear and get the camera out).Then he put the bag into the water to thaw out and once it thawed out, it was put up on my drip pole and away it went.
Today my counts are on their way down White cells 1 and HB 100 and they will inevitably drop to 0. So we will have to wait and see what the week ahead brings but so far I have fared very well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You keep writing we will keep reading, I would say be strong but the comment would be redundant, you already are.

be good

Jason

PS I told my mum about what is happening to you and is a genuine McAuley by birth - so she is also in on the praying and she is good at it, been doing it for years