On Saturday, my wife began the neuprogen injections designed to increase the generation of her Stem Cells. Today we went to Fairfax Hospital to have a Quentin catheter put into her chest to allow for the extraction from her peripheral blood and the eventual reinjection of her stem cells after her immune system is suppressed by chemotherapy. She is a good candidate for the procedure, known as an autologous stem cell transplant, because of how well she has done on chemo, and how healthy, other than her blood cancer, she is.
We had to be prepared for possible complications today, but none occurred. The procedure was done under a sedative, although we were prepared for general anethesia (nothing by mouth after midnight) in case complications or pain required a general to be administered.
As a precaution to post-operative pain, she has taken a pain killer before being discharged, and we have a prescription being filled for additional pain killers should they be necessary. We are hopeful they will not be.
Tomorrow I will return to the classroom. A friend will drive her first to the transplant surgeon's office to get another shot, then the short distance to where her stem cells will be gathered, dropping her off there. I will be picking her up sometime in the afternoon, leaving school as
