Finally heading home!

Day two of collection was actually even better than day one (even though I was hooked up for a shorter amount of time). I collected 19.3 million cells on day two so my final number of banked cells is 36.4 million cells. This is enough to do nearly 10 transplants. I'm only slated for 2 with the initial protocol, but I like the idea of having a large excess backup immune system in the bank.

After collection I got some platelets then headed over to have my line removed, or "pulled" as everyone kept saying. I ended up in the table again exactly 24 hours after she put it in. Once it was over I felt like "yanked" might have been more a appropriate term, because that was exactly what she did. To her credit she warned me it wasn't going to be pleasant, and she advised me to take a deep breath and hold it. But man, it wasn't fun. A little lidocaine would have gone a long way...

I was really happy to run into two of my fellow patients in the line placement waiting room, they had both gotten the call that they were ready for collection. Unfortunately there was no doctor available in line placement (he got called into a 4 hour emergency surgery), so they might have had to wait until Monday to start collection. I hope they got it worked out and were able to start earlier. I'm sure I'll be running into them again during transplant and my thoughts will be with them...they were both very sweet. So many wonderful people down here!

After the pleasure of having my garden hose yanked we went back to the clinic for discharge instructions. It took a while and we ended up skipping lunch so we were hungry, but it was worth it to be freed. I didn't get to meet with Dr. B this time either. I thought he was out of town, but turns out he had been very ill and had been hospitalized briefly earlier in the week. The PA that discharged me said he had just been to visit him and he's feeling much better, but he's certainly not the type that is used to being the patient.

As part of the discharge I met with the transplant coordinator and got the dates nailed down. I want to return pretty quickly because the sooner I get started the sooner I will be done with it all, and the longer I am out on disability the more of a financial hardship it will be. When I return I have to do what they call "restaging". This will be two MRI's, a bone marrow biopsy, a pulmonary function test, and a cardiac echo. (It usually includes a PET scan too, but the PA thought he could get me out of this since I already had the unnecessary one and nothing shows up on them anyway.) After these I have to meet with Dr. B and get a new central line before I can start the transplant. So the schedule basically had to planned around when Dr. B would be in town to be able to see me, and I would have t0 be there at least 2 business days before that to get all the tests done. The only date the really works to see Dr. B is April 12th so that pretty much sets it all up.

I'll get the new line on the 13th then start the chemo for transplant on the 14th. They give the chemo over 4 days, then on day 5 they infuse the stem cells. My blood counts will drop over 7-10 days from the chemo while the stem cells repopulate the bone marrow. Once the bone marrow has recovered my counts will go back up over the next 7-10 days.

So for now I'm free to go home for a little while. Our flights are in the morning, so we spent most of the day today packing up. We moved some things over to the house we'll be renting for the next few months. We have to clear out of this place since I won't be back before the rental period is up. The new rental doesn't technically start until April 1st, but woman that owns the house was nice enough to let us store some things there early. We really lucked out finding this little house.

We also had a nice dinner out last night at a local place called Loca Luna. It was little pricier than we expected, but it turned out to be worth it...the food was great. It's not often I completely clear a plate of a dinner sized portion at restaurant, but I literally almost licked this plate clean. This morning we found a cute little place for breakfast called B Side. The food was great there too. Little Rock is growing on me, it's really a cute little city.

The other excitement of the day was another trip to get my hair cut. Just like clockwork it started really coming out on yesterday two weeks after starting the chemo bag just like the nurse said. We made a trip to Supercuts, and the poor girl looked absolutely terrified to have to take the clippers to my head. She used a 6 guard so it's not completely bald yet, just very very short. My mom exclaimed "You look like your brother!". I thought I would be more emotional about it, but once it started coming out it was a nuisance and I was ready to be done with it. And now I get to wear my fancy head coverings. ;p I actually think I'll be much more sad to see my eyebrows go! I promise I will post some pics of the new look soon.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and sending messages of support. I'm really happy to be going home for bit, although I am sure it's going to be hard to readjust to the kid alarm clock after sleeping in down here. ;p Can't wait to see the kiddos though, it's going to be harder to leave them each time I think.

Anyone sending mail or packages please don't send anything else to the apartment address since I won't be here after today. Send me an email if you need the new address!