When I married my best friend almost 18 years ago, I never could have imagined holding his hand while he was being "born" again. Yet here I am, doing just that.
Today, at 2:05 pm, Ted received his first bag of his cleaned out stem cells.
The entire procedure is so simple yet and so life changing.
Two weeks ago, Ted had his stem cells (also referred to as white blood cells) harvested. He was connected to an adpherisis machine and where they kept the cells needed and gave him back everything else. It took two days to collect just under 6 million cells. After that, the cells are looked at, some preservatives are added and I am not sure what else is done with them other than being put into smaller bags.
Those bags are then frozen until it is time for their use. Two of them were used today and brought into the room in this cool looking container.
How cool is this when the container is opened and out comes blood... well, stem cells. Makes me think of the book/ TV series called Shadow Hunters and their vampire friends.
The nurse then lays everything out and gets it ready to push into his hickman one.
They check three separate times that he is indeed getting his cells. This was the last picture he would let me take as he started to feel bad shortly into the process.
One of the things that he was given are life savor mints. Many patients state tasting garlic or tomato soup. Another bizarre fact of this procedure is that he is starting to smell of creamed sweet corn. I am not quite sure what that is all about, but it is another odd side effect of the transplant.
Now all that is left to do is wait.
We will wait for him to hit rock bottom. Ted will become neutropenic where he has zero immune system. When that happens, we will switch rooms to a pressurized one that will help to keep him that much safer.
Once that happens, we wait for his numbers to increase, slowly at first and then quickly. That is when he will feel so much better and hopefully want to move and eat more.
The staff will continue to monitor him closely for any signs of poor reaction or the start of any sickness. They take that stuff pretty seriously (so seriously, I can't use the bathroom in him room). I believe that I will used about a gallon of hand sanitizer while I am here and that much more lotion. Better safe than sorry.
Now our family immediate family has a birthday to celebrate in February. I wonder if it was all in God's plan that this day is also the birthday of my paternal grandfather? Hmmm... things to put on the list to ask about when I get to Heaven.
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