Today is what they call 'Day zero'. It's the day I get my stem cells back. Every day after this is counted down until the cells engraft, start making bone marrow and then my blood counts return to the normal range. It could take from ten to twenty eight days.
I finished my saline IV at 6am, a full 23 hours after they started. One of the nurses was about to reconnect me to a slow drip this morning and I said "no way!" They thought it would be a good way of keeping the IV line open until I got my stem cells. I insisted that I be disconnected and that the line be flushed with Heparin they way it's been done previously. Why anyone would think a patient would be happy to stay connected for no good reason after 23 hours of continuous IV's I have no idea. I got my way.
I have no idea how long the stem cells will take to be administered. I remember there were nine blood bags full when I took them to Germany, so it could take some time to infuse them.
So far I've only had a couple of bouts of nausea, thrown up just the once and my mouth seems to be holding up so far with no real problems with swallowing etc. It is of course still very early days. As the cells lining my mouth die off there will be no new ones for some time to replace them so it is likely to become quite raw. The nature of the chemo drugs is that it binds the DNA of cells and stops them from replicating. Fast growing cells such as hair, mouth, stomach lining are affected the most as are cancer cells that divide very quickly. Hence the use of the drugs.
I'll post later once I'm getting the stem cells...
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