New Birth - November 18, 2009

November 18, 2009 marks the day that I received my stem cell transplant. We are about half way through the process now if all goes well.

The day actually went very well and quickly. My room was a buzz since about 5:00 a.m. where they began me on my fluids. I received 2 liters of fluids throughout the day..... take a guess at what I've been doing since!!

They had four bags of stem cells to give back to me and they roll them up on a cart that thaws them right outside my door...very awesome...once they are semi-thawed they hang the bag and they go in through a special IV. They are monitoring my vitals etc very closely while this is going on. All four bags only took about a half hour to go and then it was done. I had to get four more hours of fluids, quite a bit of education from the nurses and nutritionists, and a good lesson in all of the medications I need to take. We were discharged and able to come 'home' at around 3:30 p.m.

It was very nice to be out of the hospital environment last night, but it did take me quite some time to settle in for the night and actually fall asleep. With so many medications and so much trauma that my body went through I honestly don't think it knew what the heck to do! :)

From this point forward I am considered an out patient and I will go in daily to get checked over to make sure that all is going well with me. They will be monitoring my vitals, weight, food/calorie log, how I'm feeling, sleeping etc...all the normal things to make sure that I am stable or if I need an extra boost of something along the way. Still taking it one day at a time as they are telling me my toughest days are yet to come. My cells that were damaged with the chemo (not my stem cells) are continually dieing so they will all be dead by the weekend which will make me feel yuck. And with the stem cells not really engrafting for about 2 weeks I have to limp along for a bit. I will need more strength than ever coming up.

Here are a few pictures that I would like to share with all of you from my day!

Here is the nurse checking my bag of stem cells as they were getting infused.












Here is my angel Dani who brought in a beautiful gift basket for me! Love this girl!














Here is a sign that Rita and I filled out in my room "Get to know me"...it was something fun to pass the time and a great conversation starter with the staff.


















Here is the board in my room that was updated each day letting me know who my nurse was for the day...here is from my 'birthday'