Well, I have had my stem cell transplant and lived to blog it.
I went in on tuesday evening and wednesday was taken into radiology for the insertion of my hickman line...this is the line that kinked the first time I came in and had to be removed. This time it went in very smoothly. It has stayed in operation and is unpainful...a bit itchy sometimes. It is a three lumen (exit) tube that allows for multiple draws and deliveries in and out of my major chest vein. It can be left in indefinitely (whenever asked how long the usual time is, the doctors and nurses get this gleam in their eye and reply, "it can be indefinite.") but is not a sexy borg silver color...pasty white with red, yellow, and blue colored taps.
Next day was chemo day. As such, the procedure is pretty easy...I took a recommendation from a US source and chewed ice chips during the actual high dose chemotherapy delivery. This, coupled with the mouthwashes they give you, has seemed to save me the agony of mouth ulcers and esophageal ulcers Mucositis they call it.
However nothing saved me from the nausea...the one thing i dreaded most was not having it under control and it has not been. I was ill twice the same evening as chemo, and we (doctors, nurses, and me) have been working the problem since. Finally, a motorized infusion pump of nasuon (sp) coupled with cyclizine twice a day seems to be working.
The good news came yesterday when i was told my counts were on their way up again. Then, this evening, I was told I can go home...my counts have returned to normal and the transplant has been a success...i don't need any antibiotics or significant aftercare...basically, it's over
I still have to get past the last of the nausea, but i seem to be ready to go home to recover.
hair has strarted to fall out this afternoon.. just the grey this time right now.
so, home in a day or so and then a couple weeks recovery then back to the office...looking forward to it.
oh yeah, somewhere in the process they have to pull the hickman out!
regards
bill
