2nd Apheresis

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

Up at 5am … again 🙄

Tiny breakfast, and small cup of hot water 😋

Oh dear … it’s a lovely day …  and I’d really like to stay and have a coffee in the garden, but … 

Ready by 6am, and car arrives at 6:05 – so off we go to London again.

Quick trip, and I’m in hospital by 7:30, waiting for Costa to open.

So a quick soya cortado, phone chat with M, then set off on the long (crutch supported) walk to the Apheresis unit.

I feel very positive today! 😊 … is that because I’m a slightly irrational optimist?

Straight in, and rapidly plumbed back into the magical Apheresis machine.  How do the staff do this, and stay so bright and friendly?

The start-up is much faster than yesterday, because blood test requirements are less demanding.  

So ‘Magic Machine’ switch on at 9:30, and Stem Cells appear by 9:50 (Hooray!).

Lisa & Lester are here again this morning, but Lester is not allowed in to Apheresis (no visitors are). 

I hope that Lisa, who’s in the bed next to mine, has enough Stem Cells today to start Apheresis.

And hoping, hoping, hoping, that my stem cell count is similar to my count yesterday. 

I can see my Stem Cells arriving, on my progress monitor –  and I’m willing them to arrive faster.

Stem Cells are baby cells which develop into red or white cells, and platelets.  In my imagination they arrive giggling happily with the excitement of the new born.

Lisa has to wait (again) for blood test results, before her collection can start. My collection progresses.

When the results do come through I should have a rough idea of the number of Stem Cells I may get today.

We wait …

….. and wait …

……….. and wait …..

Apparently there’s a problem in the laboratory 🤨

Lisa and I chat.

We talk about the effects of Chemotherapy, or as we know it Hubble Bubble.  She, bless her, asks if I lost my hair because of it 🙄 ….. if only 😊.  

Lisa, who has a lovely full head of hair, is worried about loosing hers … and whether it’ll fall out slowly, or come out as she brushes it. 

I advise her that it’ll probably come out all together in one large piece … and be there on her pillow one morning.

I’m impressed with my imagination, and we both laugh.

For me everything’s working, but we’ve had no test feedback, yet … and carry on waiting for blood test results.

Eventually, at about 12:30, the results arrive.

Lisa didn’t have enough 🫤  but is told that she’ll have another chance to try Apheresis again. That news is hard to handle. 

Then like some ghastly school exam, my results arrive, and I too am told that I won’t have enough :-(((((((

Lisa gets ready to head for home with Lester.

I press on, and try to encourage by baby stem cells to appear, by squeezing my left fist to increase the flow of blood.

I watch the numbers slowly increase on my monitor.

While all this has been going on, a Magic Machine Maintenance Man has been working diligently on a machine opposite me.

As he finishes his work, he looks across, and it gives me a chance to ask a question about one of the numbers I’m watching. 

We start talking, and he enthusiastically tells me how the machine works … it is truly amazing … and uses my phone to take a photo to show me it’s insides.  Here’s the picture …

A wonderful moment, and a delightful man.

By 2pm I was at my limit for stem cell collection machine time, and was disconnected 🙂 … freedom to go to the loo!

So time for tea and biscuits … and then my phone called.  

It was the Hospital Physiotherapy appointment that I’d tried to postpone.  So we talked, there and then, for 20 minutes about my progress.

Physiotherapy had given me some very good advice, which I’d carefully followed … and it had worked.   Though I can’t quite skip yet, my mobility has greatly improved.

The results of a disconnection blood test, and the really quite very important results for my stem cell count were due soon, so I waited.

I had a long chat with my nurse, who said that I’d probably have to come back for more Apheresis, but that I was on the right path.  And I know that that’s true.

The results arrived.  

The nurse smiled, and said “better than expected”.  130 or 1.3 million CD34+ cells per kg.

So with yesterday’s result, that’s a total count of 2.8 million, or 2,800,000 (which looks like a lot).

That may be enough for a transplant.  It depends on the people (consultants) who really know what they’re talking about.

I thanked the staff, and happily headed home … though I may need a bit more time on the Magic Machine.

Transport arrived 4:45. It would have been earlier, but the drive couldn’t find the Apheresis unit. Then home, through rush hour London, by 6:30.

Lovely cup of tea in the garden with M, as we ponder progress.

Fingers crossed