Transplant process begins

It is time to fire up the blog again. I am back on Eleven Long starting the process of transplanting the cells we harvested eight weeks ago. My return visit was postponed a couple of weeks as I broke my left ankle on Easter Sunday. (Just stepping out of the car, nothing fun like skydiving or rock climbing!) It is a non-displaced fracture that has me in a walking boot. The delay was to be sure I was very mobile on the boot and strong enough for what they are going to throw at me.

They started me on a pre-med this time. I came down to the Mt. Zion infusion center on Saturday with Steve and Sunday with Marge to get an IV dose of Palifermin. Early this morning I drove down with Alicia to receive my third dose and get into the hospital. The Palifermin is to help minimize the side effects of the chemo they will be giving me before the transplant.

Alicia patiently waited with me or for me though my clinic visit, infusion, registration at the hospital and insertion of the Cook catheter. The last took an hour, about twice as long as it normally does. They had to give it three tries, as the vein has some scaring from the other ports and central lines that had been inserted in the past. All in all it was not too bad as I was in my room by 2:00 pm. In March it was almost 6:00 pm before the room was available. I didn’t get my favorite room, but this one is almost as good. It is about 4 rooms down with a similar view, just a bit more obstructed.
The treatment this time is more intense and they tell me I should expect that I will feel sicker and more tired than I did with my other treatments. So I will not promise to be as faithful with my blog entries. I will do my best as this seems to be a good way to document all the happenings. It was actually kind of fun to go back and read the entries from last summer. I had already forgotten so much, but then maybe that is a good thing!