Apheresis Day #1

​Apheresis Day #1

Upon arrival Leila checked into her suite for the day

They took 8 vials of blood (good thing she’s got great veins), gave her the growth factor shot, then she was whisked off to radiology for placement of the permanent catheter. Not sure why they call it that since it’s only there temporarily (probably 6 weeks).  

Then back up to her room for the day. Once she got hooked up to the apheresis machine, Leila was able to rest and relax. 

Since she couldn’t eat anything this morning, because of the anesthesia to place the port, so we packed lots of good food for her to munch on today. 

Blood test results indicated her numbers looked great for a very successful harvest of the stem cells. The key calculation number they were looking for was a minimum of 20, Leila scored 29. Yeah!!  You go girl!!

The goal is to get 6 million stem cells in the next two days. Enough for 2 transplants. Fingers crossed and good energy flowing . . .

This machine is pretty cool!  Highly intelligent.  Even calibrates the flow if the balance gets out of whack.  Of course the nurse is constantly keeping an eye on it as well to make sure things flow a pretty shade of cloudy pinkish red.

Success!! They got 2.52 million stem cells today!!!  Great start, Leila!!  

More growth factor tonight to boost production for tomorrow. Blood levels at the end of the day all look good, except she was prescribed ice cream for dinner. 😔

Keep the prayers, healing energy and mojo coming so those viable stem cells keep flowing!