Sorry for the suspense!

The transplant itself was indeed pretty anticlimactic! I was totally zonked between the low blood pressure and the benadryl. The cells did indeed arrive in a little cooler and without much fanfare my APN hooked them up to my line and started the infusion. I think she said it was about 4 million cells in the one bag and I've still got 7 other bags frozen down. It took all of about 20 minutes then they kept an eye on me for a couple of hours afterwards. Other than a weird taste in my mouth as they were infusing it was completely unremarkable. Let's just hope the little buggers are finding their way to the right spot!

I was still really zonked once we got home and the verdict was that I smelled like creamed corn "only worse", so I banished myself to the bedroom with a fan and an open window. I couldn't smell it, but judging by the way Alex was wrinkling up his nose, I'd say it's a good thing it subsided pretty quickly.

This morning my blood pressure was low and I was feeling pretty dizzy again, so now I'm on a mission to drink more today so I'll feel better in the morning. Otherwise things are looking fine, my counts haven't started to drop yet...but they should over the next couple of days.

Sent from my iPad

Waiting for the precious cargo...

To arrive. I'm hoping they really come in a little cooler. We had a long wait I'm the waiting room, I guess everyone wanted to be here bright and early on Monday.

My blood pressure is a little low today coming off the dex. I'm a bit lightheaded, dizzy, and short of breath. I'm getting fluids right now, so hopefully that will help...I know it did last time. I might have to go home with an infusion pump for fluids. I'm not super happy about being tethered to that thing again, but it's better than taking any chances.

My APN was just here explaining the process and they have me some prophylactic benedryl in case I have some sort of reaction. So now I'm getting a little sleepy...hopefully I can stay awake for the excitement!

T-minus 1 day!

Transplant Is officially scheduled for 10:30 am tomorrow! I went in for my last doses of melphalan and velcade this morning and also took my last dose of dex this morning (not last forever, but last doses before transplant). I just have to take my thalidomide tonight, then tomorrow they will infuse the stem cells. I've been thoroughly warned it's going to be completely anticlimactic, and that I'll the pleasure of smelling like either garlic or creamed corn (depending on who you ask) for a couple of days due to the preservative they use to store the cells. This preservative is called DMSO, and it's used to help prevent ice crystals from popping the cells as they are frozen then thawed out. I've used it a million times in the lab to freeze down cell lines myself, never on any cells quite so important as these though! We need these cells to be as healthy and happy possible when they thaw them out because once the melphalan finishes doing it's job the stem cells are going to regrow all my blood cells. I also have to say DMSO itself has no odor, so it must be a metabolite that gives the odor...might have to so some detective work on that one!

I'm definitely more tired today, and I needed a little nap after the trip to the clinic. Now it's time for lunch and then a few errands. My appetite is still pretty good, but my taste buds are taking a little beating so some things are tasting a little off. I'll be glad to be off the dex so I can start eating more sugar, the pumpkin bread my mom sent is taunting me from the fridge!

Sent from my iPad

Day 3 of pre-transplant chemo, still kicking!

The trip to the clinic was pretty uneventful again. Infusion of melphalan, antinausea meds, shot of Lovenox, labs. My labs all look fine and my potassium was back up a little so the dietary intervention is working. They advised me to start wearing a face mask in the clinic waiting room even before my white blood counts drop, so I asked them if they had any smaller sizes since the standard issue size is WAY to big for my little face. I felt like it couldn't possibly be doing much of anything productive last time around. I think it was more a mix of pure luck and diligent hand cleanliness paranoia that saved me from getting sick last time my counts were low. Luckily my nurse was nice enough to go on a hunt and managed to find some that fit a little better, so I'll have a little more protection.

A little more tired today but otherwise feeling good. I slept ok last night too so I guess I'm lucky that the Dex isn't stringing me out to much. Tomorrow is the last day of chemo before the transplant on Monday!

And in other news, I now may have officially lost faith in Rotten Tomatoes. We just watched Let me In, which also got a 90% rating just like Source Code. Being horror fans, we were hopeful this would be a rare gem of the genre with it's 90% on the Tomatometer. Not even close!

A special birthday!

Happy birthday to my dear grandmother, she turned 86 years young yesterday!
She's amazing woman and a proud mother of 5, grandmother of 8, and great-grandmother of 6. Love you Gram!

A word on coconut water.

BLECH!

I think I'm sticking to bananas and potatoes (or even horse pills if necessary) from now on.

Sent from my iPad

Day 2 of melphalan, so far so good.

Spent a couple of hours at the clinic this morning for the melphalan infusion. Pretty uneventful. I'm retaining a little water from the dex and my heart rate is up a little on exertion, but nothing unusual. My potassium was a little low so I need to up that in my diet then maybe resort to the awful horse pills they gave me last time. I'm going to try coconut water for potassium this time around. She also advised that I cut down on sugar while on the dex since my blood sugar will be high already. Damn, there goes my nightly ice cream feast!

Yesterday we went for a nice walk at the park by the River Market District downtown since it was a beautiful day and I was feeling good. We got some not so great food at a pizza place since we missed lunch hours at the actual Market. Last night went to see Source Code. It was decent, maybe a little thin in some areas, but pretty good overall. I'm not sure if it deserved the 90% fresh rating it got on Rotten Tomatoes, but I enjoyed seeing my movie boyfriend Jake nonetheless.

I also finally had the pleasure of whooping Alex pretty good on Words with Friends. A rematch has just gotten underway, it will be a battle royale for sure. It's on like Donkey Kong!

Sent from my iPad