A week today, I probably have the most important meeting of my life. I’m meeting with my consultant in Sheffield and we’ll be discussing how my cancer has responded to treatment while at Chesterfield hospital, the results of my recent PET scan and what the plan is ahead of me regarding mr stem cell transplant. The lumps in my neck have about halved in size and that’s a great sign that I’m making progress. I have to admit that I’m more excited than scared because I know I can handle whatever he throws at me. There’s still 4 weeks of treatment and recovery ahead of me in November and I’ve not met or spoke to anyone who’s been through it, that’s said it’s a pleasant experience.
On the back of that, I wanted to tell of my experiences and what actually happens in a stem cell harvest, which I’ve just completed. Unfortunately, we didn’t sign Come by yar my Lord and bring tins of soup in!
I’d heard from a couple of people who had had it but never actually contacted them to find out there thoughts and experiences around it. That was probably a mistake because the more information you have, the more you can plan and prepare for what is about to happen.
In the lead up to my ‘harvest’, I had a meeting with the senior nurse about what would happen and how they day would pan out. I also had a bit of a tour and met a couple of the nurses and that was hugely helpful because I had faces to recognise when I turned up to have it done.
My harvest was on Wednesday 9 October and I had the Thursday and Friday pencilled in, just in case I needed to go back. Only 10 days earlier, I had finished my week of chemo at Chesterfield and part of the preparation for my harvest, when I got home I had to inject myself twice a day to stimulate my bone marrow so my white blood cells would be at a level to complete the harvest.
On the first day I was picked up in a ‘medi-car’ and driven to Sheffield, I was told I couldn’t drive on the way home and this was the best decision I could’ve made. On arrival I saw a couple of familiar faces, which certainly helped and I was made comfortable in my chair which would be my home for the 4/5 hrs I’d be stuck on my fat hairy arse while they took the stem cells from me. Firstly, I had my bloods taken to make sure my white bloods cells had reached the level so they could harvest them. This was a 2 hour wait for the results and if I hadn’t reached the required level, I’d have been sent home. Thankfully, I got the green light to go ahead and it’s all systems go.
I’m the hooked up, to what can be best described as a dialysis machine and have a metal cannula in my arm to take the blood out of my. At no stage was this process painful or strange, I never felt a thing. I was bored rigid and had a numb ass but that was as bad as it got. There was almost an anticlimax at the end of the harvest, I was just told it had finished and I could go home. I had been advised I’d get the results later that evening via a phone call, and that call was either “we’ve got everything we need or no we don’t and you need to come back tomorrow and do it all again”.
It was a big relief that I got the call to say they had got all of the stem cells they needed in the first sitting.
I have to say I was absolutely bollocksed by the end of it and so glad I didn’t have the drive home. The nurse did explain that every drop of my blood had been through this machine at least 2.5 times so that’s the reason for the fatigue. Since then I have struggled slightly with being out of breath so I’m guessing my blood levels haven’t returned to normal yet but I’m still kicking and screaming and still up for the fight.
And remember, smile at a stranger today, you might just make their day! But don’t get arrested if it’s part of your bail conditions.
Take care guys and much love. Onwards and upwards!!