Apheresis, Vista or Not

Day 115

Today was a bit of a disappointment on a couple of fronts. We started off early this morning by going to MDA for our Apheresis appointment. The plan today started off with a blood draw to see if there were enough CD34+ cells (aka Stem Cells) in Ann's blood that could be harvested. Then we got Ann's CVC replaced with a much larger model that the Apheresis filter could work with without crushing and destroying the blood stem cells. Well that was the plan at least...

What actually happened was a bit different. The blood draw did go off without a hitch early this morning. After which, we scooted over to the Mays Building Infusion Clinic to get Ann's brand new CVC. Initially, Ann wasn't too nervous about this until they started explaining how they were going to get the new line into her. The process involved surgical wire and a vein dilater. After that explanation Ann needed a sedative to get through it.

Pictured to the left is the after effect of the sedative and new CVC. Ann was out like a light and after she recovered she described the sensation of the new CVC line like "being punched [repeatedly] from the inside". The range of motion for her left arm has dropped to almost nothing because she can feel the new CVC line internally if she moves too much.

The good news about this line is that it is supposed to be removed as soon as Apheresis is finished. The bad news is that it will be replaced with a larger one for the transplant.

Unfortunately, we never got into our Apheresis appointment today for two reasons. After getting the new CVC, x-rays had to be taken to confirm the placement of the CVC line. Radiology took longer than they should have getting those results back so we were late for our appointment. Then it turns out that the results from the blood test this morning showed that Ann had not made enough stem cells for the process to even be viable. Of course we would have known that if we had been able to get the x-ray results back on time. Oh bother.

So we will try again tomorrow. Hopefully after another couple of shots of neupogene we will have enough stem cells. The target is 15 m/uL and Ann is currently at 7 M/uL. If not then the whole thing will be called off and MDA will try to do a direct bone marrow tap instead.

We also got told today that they will not be able to give us a definitive date for the transplant until Apheresis is complete. Talk about frustrating.

On a side note I apologize to anyone who has been trying to email us and not getting a timely response, but we have been suffering through some technical difficulties. The OS on my laptop crashed and I was forced to replace it with Windows Vista. I'm not grousing about Vista, far from it, it's actually a pretty cool OS. Just that Gateway has never gotten around to updating some drivers for the M320 series of laptops from XP SP2 to Vista. So I'm gradually getting functionality back, with a few notable and frustrating exceptions.