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!