New Stem Cells!

Today was the big day, the day I have been waiting for!  My new and clean stem cells that were harvested on Thursday were returned to me today.  I have always heard and then myself talked about how the stem cells are purified between when they are removed and when they are returned.  I asked the doctor how they purify the cells.  He said they don’t.  Gasp!  What?!  How does this work then?!

Here’s how it works:  stem cell production is forced through the chemo and filgrastim shots, as mentioned in an earlier post.  The body now has too many stem cells to fit into the bone marrow, which is how the stem cells are available through the circulatory blood flow.  These are brand new stem cells with no memory of MS.  These are the cells that are harvested.  Then the body is hit with the chemo once again, but this time to wipe out all the stem cells with the memory of MS.  Out with the old, in with the new.  So if all goes as planned, I really am free of MS.  Imagine that.  What a beautiful thing!  So today I have a brand new immune system, I am a newborn.  How many people can say that at 44?!

After the infusion of my stem cells they were able to take out the PICC line.  It didn’t occur to me to panic about that until this morning.  Suzanne had her’s removed first and said it was no big deal, she didn’t really feel a thing.  Unfortunately I was not quite as lucky, but it still wasn’t too bad.  There was a lot of tugging, and I hoped the only thing coming out was the PICC line and nothing else.  When it was out, I asked the doctor if mine came out harder than usual.  He said not really but he explained that there is a space between the bone and muscle where the line goes in.  Some people have a large space and the line slides right out and others have a narrow space.  Mine was narrow and so he had to tug a bit.  BUT, it’s out and I am one happy camper!

I have felt some slight nausea from the chemo, as I did before but nothing major.  For lunch, Vickie and I had spaghetti with sauce that Vickie made last night from roasted vegetables.  So yummy!

Thank you for all your well wishes, thought and prayers!  The major things are behind me and I feel great!  Just a few more filgrastim shots and blood draws to get my stem cell production back up and to check its progress.  So exciting!!