The Transplant Process

I want to spend the next week. Going over a few things that we are about to do. Today I wanted to talk about the transplant process. I hope that this will answer a lot of questions for everyone, who is wondering what is going on.
Stevan will be going through a autologous transplant. This is where he is his own donor. He donated his own stem cells back on April 17 and 18th. It was then frozen and stored.
He will be going through a peripheral stem cell transplantation. This is where he will have a high-dose chemotherapy and then transplantation. Its called "high-dose" because the doses he will receive are from 5 to 10 times higher than the doses given during traditional chemotherapy. Such a high dose destroys cancer cells but also healthy cells too, which divide and reproduce rapidly, such as the cells that line the mouth, stomach, intestines and the bone marrow.

The blood is made up of red and white cells and platelets. The red cells carry oxygen from your lungs throughout the body to all your organs and return carbon dioxide to the lungs to be exhaled. White blood cells prevent and fight infections and platelets help the blood to clot. Stem cells develop into red cell, white cells or platelets.  They are concentrated in your bone marrow in bones like your hips, sternum and skull, but can also be found in the blood that circulates within your body (peripheral blood). Stem cells are the only adult cells that make more than one kind of cell type.

So after this "high-dose" of chemotherapy that will destroy his stem cells, his body will have less ability to carry oxygen, and will be at a higher risk of infections and bleeding problems. This will start on May 21, after he has his CVC put in.

CVC is short for Central Venous Catheter, or central line. We are not sure what kind he will get. The common types are Hickman and Quinton. This will be used to administer chemotherapy, medications, IV fluids, blood producs, IV feedings, draw blood and stem cell transplant. I will explain more about this on May 21 when he gets it put in.

Tomorrow I want to share with you how we are planning for the transplant. I must say the best layed plans dont always go as planned. Until tomorrow...