Day 110

Today was tremendously busy. We started the day out meeting with the stem cell clinic's social worker to sign consent forms. I can't even remember the number of times I signed my name or initialed next to something. The one interesting thing I remember is signing a consent so that the NMDP could have a sample of my blood. It's a very elite club to be joining. They're tracking blood cancers. They get left-over marrow from biopsies, too. Ooky.

I got to see my transplant doctor next. I need to make an aside before I talk about the visit. When I woke up this morning, the big toe on my left foot was a little red and hurt when touched or any pressure was put on it. I have a long and varied history with ingrown toenails. It's gross, I know. I've had two surgeries to help correct it and was planning on scheduling another before I was diagnosed. I told Dr. Alousi's physician's assistant about it and she insisted that Dr. Alousi see it. They're worried about an infection, so I now have an appointment with a podiatrist. Chris and I joked that my downfall would be something as silly as an ingrown toenail. We shouldn't have invited trouble. I have to have this cleared up before I can move forward.
Dr. Alousi said that the CBT would probably take place in as short as two weeks.

Two weeks is a scary proposition when you think of it. I was a little shocked when he said it. I'll start mega doses of neupogen on Friday. It will be three times the dosage that I normally get injected with. On Monday, I'll be getting a new port placed in my chest so that they can harvest my white blood cells to use in case I don't engraft properly.

I met my research nurse during this visit, as well. She gave me a time table for the chemo that they'll be using for conditioning. They are using some very scary chemicals. Chris thought that I'd be doing total body irradiation. I'm glad that I'm doing chemo. The radiation wreaks havoc on your brain. No thanks. I'm already suffering from learning disabilities from the chemo regimen. It's funny, but in the beginning when I worried about this side effect possibly affecting me, my friend Joe said, "You're smart enough." It still makes me laugh. I'll do seven days of chemo followed by two days of rest and then I get my new cells. I still can't believe it.

I had an EKG after this. We had to wait one hour and fifteen minutes for this appointment. The EKG took less than five minutes. This put me off for the rest of the day. The next appointment was an interview to discuss my new port placement. When they put in my original port, I was so high from all of the medication that they gave me, I don't even remember it. The description of the new procedure made me a little queasy. They're going to pull out my old port and insert a guide wire to find the big vein leading into my heart in order to place the new port. I was told to let the technician know if this hurt. I can't wait. I'm debating on whether or not to eat before this one, because I sincerely do not want to throw up on myself during this one.

The last appointment was not my favorite. I knew that I was on the board for a bone marrow aspiration. Turns out that I was also down for a bone biopsy too. This involves punching out a piece of my hip bone to analyze. The technician that performed both procedures was a very petite woman. She might have weighed one hundred pounds. When you're having this procedure done, you want a guy who looks like they live at the gym when they aren't at work. I had that guy the first time I had an aspiration and biopsy. No pain. It was wonderful. I almost asked for the procedure to stop three separate times. It was excruciating. I'm not generally a baby when it comes to pain. She had to go in a three different angles because she kept straying out of the area that had been anesthetized. Imagine an enormous punch going into your hip bone below an area that hasn't been hit with lidocaine. My bum hurts. Chris reminded me that I still had darvon and I am grateful.

We got back to the apartment after 6pm. We have a full day tomorrow, as well. I can't even remember what we're doing. It's like riding the tea cup rides. At least we're in the home stretch.