This guy has been guiding us on this journey since August 2022. He's very direct, calm, straightforward, and well-spoken. He's super tall and Leila's favorite thing about him is that he sits down to talk with her eye-to-eye.
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 ...
Addendum from Leila - the worst side effect from this week is the itchiness around the central line. It's everywhere the interventional radiology folks plastered on that clear covering with sticky edges. Adding new allergy to my list which might as well state "anything with any kind of adhesive."
ReplyDeleteIf it’s a clear dressing with a white border, a tegaderm may not be as irritating. Just a thought. Caryn💕
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