Treatment day 5: Sarah's Transplant video and her Stem cell birthday party, my stem cell harvest

Busy day today for sure. Was awoken around 6:45 am to prepare to harvest my stem cells for the upcoming transplantation. Pretty exciting as I am more than ready to get this transplant over and head down the road of recovery. We started off by hooking me up to the aphresis machine to separate my stem cells from the blood. First funny event for the day happened when I decided to break protocol and post a picture of the aphresis machine on Facebook. Have you ever had your phone make an auto correct and put something really funny, stupid, or inappropriate in comparison to what you are trying to convey? I have. And it happened this morning. I typed that I was being hooked to an aphresis machine and it changed it to a aphrodisiac machine. BWaaHaaHaa. Goofy thing.

The whole process of the stem cell harvest was a real walk in the park. Just lay back and let the machine run you blood through the aphresis (separator) for a few hours. It only took me 3   They now /have harvested stem cells, but we won't know if the have the required amount for a person of my  hours to collect the volume they needed. We won't know if there are enough stem cells until it is tested because it is determined by the body weight of the patient as to how many stemmies are needed. Should there not be enough then I will need to repeat tomorrow. It may not look like a lot of stem cells, but I am hoping their are over 2 million stemmies in there.

I am hoping its enough then they can remove the (pain in the neck) catheter. Just kind of joking about the pain in the neck because it really didn't cause me to much angst. I've heard some others did have some difficulties with it. Like so many things with this disease and treatment it is a very individualistic situation.If enough stem cells were harvested for me today then I will have the catheter removed late this afternoon or early evening. All in all the catheter insertion and harvesting was a very mild procedure and almost completely pain free. I can tell that it looks a heck of a lot more intimidating that it is in real life.That doesn't mean some people will not have a tough time with it. I didn't and am grateful for that.

This evening stemmie sister Sarah will be receiving her stem cells back that were harvested a few days ago. She has finished her 4 days of chemo and ready for the transplant of her stem cells and let them build a brand new immune system. One that will no longer attack her immune system as the defective on was doing. We are all excited for her and there will be a little party in the common room. Dr. Fedorenko has a ceremonial presentation for her that we will record and post so others can so it also.

We have two new patients checking in to the hospital today so hopefully they will be able to participate in the stem cell party for Sarah. It would be great for them to have a positive experience on the first day here. I'm sure there will lots of smiles and laughter. And we are going to be eating cake!

Sarah honored me with the recording of her stem cell transplant. She did brilliantly throughout the whole procedure. She now officially has a brand new immune system, One that should discontinue to attack her nervous system unnecessarily. WootWoot!!!

Watch the link of her transplant. It is very short and only takes a couple of minutes. She handled the transplant like a real trooper. Very happy and proud of you Sarah!! Celebration cakes tonight.
Click the link below. Another link will drop below and click the link on the new one to be taken to the video.

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.blagbrough.9/videos/10210504086414720/

We then had the stem cell birthday celebration along with enjoying some cakes. Dr. Fedorenko likes to perform a ceremony with presenting a small gift to the newly born and pouring of liquid nitrogen on the floor. Please enjoy this video as well.

https://youtu.be/xIIoTpPsu5o