Yesterday was a long and tiring day here at Pirogov, but a very exciting, bustling, and festive day for our group. We are seeing some patients being discharged and saying our good byes and well wishes to them. Sad and happy moments colliding in the air made for some special moments. Whether the feelings were happy or sad there were all terribly heartfelt and full of optimism for all's futures. If and when some readers realize this endeavor you will feel what is felt in the room and just read the words from this blog. I am not blessed with the prose to make people feel the intensity of the moment.
Let's move on to my day as it was a big day in my life and was action packed from sun up to sun down. Let me tell you I was so worn out and tired at the end of the day I don't think that I could have eaten another slice of pizza if I wanted to. Oh, did I tell you we had another pizza party celebrating my stem cell birthday, a day after celebrating three stem cell birthdays the night before! Wondering if we are creating a ritual to celebrate stem cell birthdays by eating Paaa Johns pizza. That's right Papa Johns, and the best thing is they will deliver pizza to the guard gate. Just walk down and pick up your party pack. It's pretty awesome!!!
Sorry for the sidetrack there, but it was fun to break up some of the monotony of being a patient in another country. Hopefully others will do things similarly. Transplant day was yesterday for me and I felt that things went pretty much how I would have liked to script it for myself. Their team here is top notch and work with high efficiency. Overall time for my transplant was a little longer than the average. This is because it took tree attempts to collect the necessary stem cells. A little over
Million stemmies is their magic number for a person of my weight, The slowdown for the transplant was due to the number of bags used for collection had to be transplanted one at a time for a total of three times. Should all of my collections been taken in one attempt there would only have been one bag needed for the transplant and it would have been quicker. No big deal just a little extra time laying a waiting.
I was warned of all of the possible sensations and feelings that could arise during the transplant. The doctors informed be what to be doing to alleviate any discomfort, inform them of heart palpation's, stomach pain etc. Felt like I was loaded for bear and we ready to fight toe to toe with MS. Any hgihly uncomfortable feelings or sensations did not really rise to the level that I needed pain shots or any assistance at all. Was fortunate because I know others in our group did have some needed assistance. The worse that I had to deal with was tightness in my chest and minor burning in the top of my stomach. Neither rose to the need for any action. Afterward I did urinate blood for a day and half , thankfully that has cleared and looks like my kidneys should be fine.Chemo is hard on many organs so the my medical team is watching and checking everything closely. Upon conclusion of the transplantation I retired to my bed for two hours so that I could participate in my new stem cell birthday. And of course, devour on some Papa Johns's. LOL
To watch the transplantation video please click the youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/edit?action_reinstate=1
To watch the short stem cell birthday celebrations please click this youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkP9lSwOHJw&feature=youtu.be
To watch the obligatory splashing of liquid nitrogen by Dr. Fedorenko click this youtube video:
https://youtu.be/AxYZQov1wW4
Now it was time for the pizza and an early night of a much needed rest.
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