Collection is finished!

Sorry I didn't update sooner, but the collection really wore me out. You'd be worn out too if they cycled all your blood through a machine in 3 hours. So I went in to see my doctors Monday morning (without having eaten or drank since the night before just in case we went ahead with the surgery), and they checked my counts. And they were exactly where they needed to be! My cb34's (the ones that they monitor for the stem cell collection) were at 120, and they only needed them to be at 20. So I was super prepared for the collection! So they sent me down to day surgery in order to have the temporary catheter placed for the collection. Well, after over 3 HOURS of waiting (I thought I would pass out from thirst), they fit me in and I went back for surgery. It was really interesting how they did it. They gave me some conscious anesthesia so that I was still able to talk to them during the surgery. Personally I don't feel like they gave me enough... but that's another matter haha. So they covered me with this tent, and taped up one corner of it to a pole by my head so I could breathe and see the anesthesiologist. And on the right side of my neck (where they placed the temporary line) was a hole in the tent with tape around it that they fastened to my skin. So they had this nice little area to work on. The doctor talked to me here and there saying I would feel "bee stings" (the shots to numb the area) and "pressure" (when they shoved the catheter into my neck), but it was all over in about 5 minutes. Over three hours of waiting for a five minute procedure. Oh the joys of a hospital.

They took me up to the 9th floor of building A at Medical City after the surgery in order to start the collection. The collection took about 4 hours once we started, and though I tried to stay awake and watch an episode of Dexter on my laptop... I was asleep after about 30 minutes. Apparently... missing 10% of your blood volume at a time can be rather exhausting. Who woulda known? So the collection went well, and they sent my stem cells off  to be counted. We went home. Ate some pizza. And then received a phone call from my stem cell coordinator saying that I had collected 8.5 million stem cells!!! And our goal was only 5 million. So I am a master collector, and they were all really impressed with me. But you know, I just did my best. Focused really hard on getting all those stem cells in the bag. :P Just kidding. I wish you could control that haha. God was simply on my side that day. So now a bag of my stem cells is chillin in some freezer at Medical City, and I can't wait to have them back in another few weeks! I miss them already :( After receiving the good news, Kelly (my awesome coordinator) told us we could come in the next morning to have a nurse remove that line they put in. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Woah. She had surgery and a doctor put in her line, and now some nurse is just going to yank it out?!" I thought the same thing, but apparently it is really simple, fairly pain free, and they do it a lot.

So we went in this morning, and my lovely nurse, Sheila, cut the sutures, and popped the line right on out. She let me see it, but I didn't manage to get a picture. Sheila held pressure on it for a while and bandaged it all up, and then they made me stick around on bed rest for an hour until they could be sure that I wasn't going to pass out or die or something. But other than being tired, things went very smoothly! So my mom brought me back to the house and I slept for 4 hours. Woohoo! One of the great things about having cancer... no one can ever question your need for a nap hehe.

        ^^The huge catheter that they put in for the stem cell collection ^^

                   ^^The super cool bandage I now have until tomorrow afternoon when we can remove it^^

PET scan is scheduled for Thursday morning, so once we know the results of the scan we can move forward! I'll post again soon!

Holding out

So my appointment went well on Thursday.... except for the fact that my counts were not high enough to start the stem cell collection on Friday. So we will head back to the doctor on Monday and hope that my counts are high enough then. While I was at the doctor, they decided to hang a bag of fluids because I appeared to be slightly dehydrated. The fluids actually made me feel quite a bit better and gave me more energy. Yay for fluids!

Also, I got a new wig today! Or rather, I got back my old wig that had been restyled. Last time I was sick I was fortunate enough to have a loving grandmother who purchased a human hair wig for me (I'm not even gonna tell how much those things cost). I wore it a lot (practically every day actually) since I was in school, so when I pulled it out of the box a few weeks ago it looked a little tattered. It had thinned out a lot in the time that I wore it, so I was fairly sure it was done for. Well, a couple weeks back when I went to go purchase a new synthetic hair wig, we brought along my old wig for the ride. Tracy, the woman that owns All About You- a fantastic salon and wig shop here in Plano that you should TOTALLY check out if the mood strikes you- worked her magic on my old wig. She cut about 4 to 5 inches off and made it into an angled bob. It is tres chic and super duper cute. Basically, I love it. She turned the tattered old wig of yesterday into the adorable and stylish new wig of tomorrow. I seriously feel like it's an entirely new wig. I'll probably sleep in it... Just kidding.

Please pray that my counts are up on Monday and we can start the collection! Oh also, pray that my nose heals. I got a nasty infection where my nose ring is Wednesday night, and since my counts are low it has been painful and it isn't healing well. I'll update next week about the collection :)

Two Chemo Treatments Down!

I finished my second chemo treatment on Saturday around 5pm, and I was able to go home on Sunday around 3pm. It was just... you know... awful, but I'm feeling MUCH better today. It's really difficult to describe how chemo makes you feel. I mean, you have the nausea and the discomfort, possibly some headaches or pain. Whatever, but the real terrible thing is that even when all of that is under control (which usually means you are so medicated you can't see straight)... you still feel, just gross. That feeling FINALLY went away this morning when I woke up, so praise the Lord! This round of chemo was definitely a lot harder on me than the first time, which I imagine is a pattern typical to chemo. However, I am hoping and praying that this is the LAST round of chemo before my stem cell transplant. We won't know for sure until I do my next PET scan, which should be happening in the next couple of weeks. So please pray for a clean scan because that means that my cancer is gone (well, at least for now), and they can proceed with the stem cell transplant to KEEP it gone.

I'm not exactly sure when they will start the transplant, but they are hoping to do the collection on Friday of this week. I go in on Thursday for them to check my blood counts and see if they are at the optimum point for collection, and if they are... Then Friday morning I will have a temporary line placed. They seemed sketchy about where that will go... neck, chest, arm? But I'm sure they'll let us know beforehand. And then they will start collecting that day. It takes about 4-6 hours to collect, and they just hook me up to a machine and I watch movies or knit or stare at the wall until they're done. Hopefully I collect all in one day, but if they can't get enough stem cells, then I will go back each day after until they have enough. So wish me luck! I'm focusing my blood cells and letting them know what's up. They also have me doing Neupogen shots every day (yeah... my mom is giving me two shots at home everyday. Super fun.), so that should help boost by blood count as well. Wish me luck this week, and I'll give an update about how the collection goes!

P.S.- If you are reading this, let me know! Comment, make a google account and follow the blog, or send me a text saying hey. I would really appreciate it :) I want to make sure I'm not just writing this for myself haha.

Apparently... I'm Impressive

Well, the doctor's appointment yesterday was a success! My counts aren't just up... they're WAY up. My white blood cell count went from 0.6 last week to 23.5 this week. My doctor's were freaking out haha. So I can once again go out in public, which I will be taking full advantage of before I am admitted to the hospital again on Tuesday morning where they'll knock my counts back down again. After my doctor's appointment yesterday, I went to go get my haircut since it has been thinning since Sunday. Well, A LOT fell out during the haircut and over the past couple of days. So... it's a bit patchy. I've been wearing hats since the haircut, but in a couple of days it may just be time for it to go. Ah well, that's just part of it, huh? However, I have come up with a list of things that are awesome about not having hair...

1. The length of my showers will now be cut in half!
2. I never have to worry about brushing through knots.
3. I no longer have to worry about shaving. Anything. Ever.
4. When I get ready in the morning, I now only have two options... scarf or fake hair. Or possibly hat. Easy easy decisions.
5. People will pay more attention to my face?

Well I don't know about that last one haha, but there are definitely some silver linings :)

A New Year!

Hello all! So I've been home from the hospital since Monday December 27th, and things have been getting progressively better. Some days are worse than others, but all in all MUCH better than being in the hospital. I received a Nulasta shot on Monday before I left, and what it attempts to do is jump start my bone marrow to produce more cells in order to replace the ones that I'm losing due to the chemo. When we went to the doctor on Wednesday the 29th to check my blood counts, we were told that I am neutrapenic (meaning that the neutrafil in my white blood cells are WAY lower than they should be normally). Essentially this means that I am more susceptible to infection, so I've been staying in since Wednesday in order to avoid large crowds and/or sick people. I have had some visitors though, so that's been nice. My best friends in the whole world, Shelby and the Hannahs, came to visit for New Years Eve. They stayed the night, I showed them around Plano a bit (I know, I went out! Wow. God forbid haha.), and then they went home New Years Day. It was all in all a very successful new year! However, the past couple of days my bones have been aching quite badly from the Nulasta shot. Apparently, growing cells really fast in your bone marrow is painful, which I remember from the last time I went through treatment. It just wasn't quite as bad last time, but I'm feeling quite a bit better today and am walking and moving around a bit more.

Next doctor's appointment is this coming Wednesday, and we'll see where my blood counts are then. If they are where they should be (on the rise), then we are looking to start chemo again on the 11th. If my counts are better, then Plano friends... prepare yourselves... I'll want to leave this house and go places! I'll update after the appointment :)

Thanks for reading,
Brenna