I’m going back and reading some of my blog posts from a year ago. It’s the only way I can really tune back in to what life was like in the lead up to my stem cell transplant.
We had been in Sacramento for a few days at this point. The tunneled catheter was in my chest and we were preparing to have my stem cells collected the next day.
Hard to believe what a different reality that was compared to now. As I reflect on it, I think a part of me is in a sort of “reactionary” mode — experiencing lots of resistance to discipline, consistency, focus.
Maybe that’s why I’m so into upgrading my garden at the moment. Creating wine barrel planters is a way to channel my energy into something productive, but that’s also a treat.
I think I neglected to mention that when they removed the catheter from my chest, I still had to wait another week before I could take a full shower.
It had to do with the fact that the opening where the catheter had been led to my heart, so it had to heal completely before I could allow it to get wet.
But finally the moment arrived. I am soooo grateful and hope I never take hot showers entirely for granted ever again.
We’ve been here for almost five full days and are finally starting to feel completely settled into our temporary home.
Our Wednesday arrival was fairly intense. We packed up the car, drove to Sacramento, unloaded the car, grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the hospital for three separate appointments (lab work, COVID test, and a teaching appointment about the nitty gritty bone marrow transplant details).
It was a bit much.
But then we were up early Thursday morning to start with the injections (administered by Ramesha!) that stimulate the stem cells to grow faster, followed by a 7:00am appointment in vascular access to put a “tunneled catheter” into my upper chest, where it will remain for the next however many weeks.This catheter will be used for the stem cell collection as well as to draw blood and give me necessary IV infusions, hydrating fluids, etc. (I shared in more detail about that experience in this blog post.)
Friday was mostly recovery and putting things away, while Saturday was a supposedly quick trip to visit a friend who I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic; unfortunately we didn’t reckon on traffic, which made it into a much longer day than anticipated. Today we went for a walk, watched the Ananda Village Sunday service online, and did some grocery shopping — all blessedly low key activities.
However, tomorrow is the big stem cell collection day! We report to the apheresis unit at 8:00am and I’ll be on the machine for approximately 4-6 hours. It will be great if they can get enough stem cells that first day but if not, we’ll repeat the process on Tuesday and even Wednesday, as needed.
And that’s all there is to report so far. More soon…
Love from Sharon & Fabio (aka Bhagavati & Ramesha)
This morning I had a “line placement” appointment. This is the line that will be used to circulate my blood while extracting the stem cells, to be restored later.
So, I somehow imagined it would be something along the lines of a glorified IV, but I was wrong.
My first clue should have been when the appointment details included the phrase “vascular access.” A big second clue was the fact that I was actually admitted to the hospital for the procedure, even though I didn’t have to remain in the hospital.
At any rate, it ended up being a morning of “firsts” — my first time being wheeled through hospital corridors from the prep room to the procedure room; my first time having oxygen tubing placed at my nostrils (just in case); my first time receiving IV sedation; my first time getting a tunneled catheter placed in a vein near my heart(!); and, finally, my first time being pushed in a wheelchair by one of the attendants to the parking lot afterwards.
All this was on top of yesterday’s rush of packing, the drive down, and afternoon appointments. Needless to say, I spent the rest of today in rest and recovery mode.
