We have known that Stevan was going to do a transplant since about January. He's had an bone biopsy and bone marrow aspiration, EKG, pulmonary function test, and lots of blood test before they would even consider him a candidate for the transplant. After this they decided they could collect his stem cells. April 13 they started giving him Neupongen shots, which makes the body over produce stem cells so that they spill over into the blood. He had to take two shots each day til April 17, when they began the harvest. Dr. Holter, the doctor that is in charge of the stem cell transplant, had ordered 5 million cells CD34, which is the human gene that encodes protein and 12 million cells of Mononuclear, which are in short, white blood cells. They were able to collect 4.3 million cells... That was great. The second day I think they collect about the same.
They wanted him to do one more round of Revlimid and dexamethasone before he goes in to do the transplant. He'll finish it up on Sunday just in time to go into the hospital.
This sums up the medical aspects of our planning. The rest of the planning is mental, physical and emotional. I will try to go into that tomorrow.
Us before Myeloma
Celebrating our 5 year Anniversary a few days early. Wow! We've both changed over the past few years.
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