Transplant Day: October 24, 2008

Yesterday was the big day for my transplant! After suffering through 7 straight days of intense chemotherapy, my stem cells were reintroduced into my body. The entire process took about 12 minutes, which according to the nurse was extremely short. The shortness was because my original harvest had been so good that I only needed to infuse one bag rather than multiple bags. I have been feeling very week these last few days and had gotten some of the unfortunate side effects of the chemotherapy, burn marks on my hands and mouth sores. But in about 5 days they will begin the nuprogen shots that will boost my white blood cell counts and that should take care of the side effects. Sorry if this is poorly written and a little rambling as I am still really tired but I wanted to put up a post and let people know that I am still hanging in there and everything is going according to plan!

Five Million frozen stem-cells

Hanging the stem cells for transplant

Close-up of cells going down the tube and into me.

Day One

I checked into the Mayo Clinic this afternoon at 1:00 pm. They gave me a huge room which is great but unfortunately I don't have a view of anything. The day has been spent meeting with the doctors and nurses and going over everything that is going to be happening while I am here. I am being filled with fluids as I write this to keep me hydrated and I will also be given two drugs one to prevent seizures and another to protect my liver. They weighed me the second that I checked in and will weigh me everyday at 4:00 am and then again at 4:00 pm. It is essential that my weight remains the same while I am in here as too much weight loss is not good and any weight gain at all can be a negative sign of one if the chemo drugs. Other than that I have just been getting settled into my new "home," it is probably a bad sign that I already want to break out of this place as I am going crazy but my mom has confiscated my wallet so there will be no taxi rides to the airport for me :(

Starting tomorrow I will begin the chemotherapy at 8:00 am and be given one of the drugs every 4 hours for the first three days. Following that I will have the remaining three drugs over the last three days. They have stressed multiple times that these drugs are not going to be fun, in fact one nurse said I am going to feel like I have been beaten by a Louisville Slugger, but what does not kill me will only make me stronger. Below are some pictures of me in my room:

Cowboys v. Cardinals/ Final Update

I was able to make it out to the Cowboys v. Cardinals game this past Sunday to tailgate with Kevin, Brooke, JJ and a bunch of other friends! We had a great time and it was cool to be able to tailgate at a professional event, pretty much what you would expect beer and bbq's but with way too many Cowboys fans. If you didn't know better you might have thought that you were in Dallas. I have to give them credit Cowboys fan sure do travel. The game was exciting with the Cardinals pulling off the win in OT! And it was hard, yet funny, to watch the hoards of Cowboy fans make the walk of shame through the parking lot to their cars following the loss...

As far as updates go, I met with Dr. Reeder today to get the results of my most recent tests and to find out the official schedule of my transplant. Dr. Reeder was very pleased with the results of the tests especially after everything that took place last week and he is feeling optimistic about the transplant. I will be heading in tomorrow once they have a room available for me to get situated and started on pre-meds and hydration. The chemotherapy will then begin Thursday and last for seven days with one day off at the end before they re-introduce my stem cells on the 24th. After that it will be all recovery time with daily blood works tests as we wait for my blood counts to return to a healthy level so that I can be discharged. 

Thanks again to all of you for your support! I will try and update my blog while I am in the hospital, but if I am unable to I will have my mom or Jim type something up so that everyone knows what is going on!

Yo Adrian!

My schedule is finally set, after a few more tests this upcoming Monday and a final meeting with my doctor on Tuesday I will be admitted on Wednesday October 15th! I will be in the hospital for about 2-3 weeks depending upon my recovery time, but I am going to do everything that they tell me to do and then some so that I can try and get out of there sooner. I wish that I could sit here and pretend like I am not nervous and scared, but I am. 

This cancer may be as strong as Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago combined, and it has definitely thrown a lot punches at me and had me in the corner more than once wanting to throw in the towel, but that is something that I refuse to do! I have gone through way too much and fought way too many rounds to give up in the 15th because "I aint no bum!" It is now time for me to find the inner Rocky in myself and know that I have a ton of people rooting me on like Rocks trainer Mickey. And with that kind of support there is no way that I can lose! I am going to, "eat lightnin' and crap thunder" until this cancer can't get up from the ten count...

It will be then, that I proclaim to all of you in my corner. "Yo Adrian, WE did it!!!" 

Update from CT Scan

It was a pretty rough weekend for me after my last round of ESHAP. I spent most of Sunday in bed trying unsuccessfully to keep any food down and unfortunately the sickness led into Monday when I had to go into Mayo for blood work and my CT scan. 

I had my follow-up meeting with Dr. Reeder today to go over the CT scan results from yesterday, apparently the mass has grown slightly since my last scan in September which means that the cancer is once again adapting to the chemotherapy and fighting back. Instead of giving me another round of a different type of chemotherapy they have decided that the best thing to do is go ahead with the bone marrow transplant followed by some radiation and try and knock this thing out once and for good. So I will more than likely be admitted on Monday and begin the BEAM chemotherapy on Tuesday. I am going to be going through some tough times in the next few weeks but I will try and update my blog as much as possible while I am in the hospital. Once again, thank you to everyone for your continued support!

A Minor Setback

After going through the first four days of what was supposed to be the last round of ESHAP I ran into a minor brick wall. Friday was supposed to be the quickest day as far as the length of treatment but when I woke up that morning my face was swollen and my chest was feeling tight. I brought up my symptoms to the nurse as soon as I got to the Mayo Clinic and as a precaution she decided to weigh me to see if I was retaining fluid. Turns out I had gained almost 15lbs of fluid since the chemotherapy started. So my last day of treatment was cancelled and I was sent to get an x-ray which did show fluid in my lung cavity once again. Below is information from cancerbackup.org explaining a pleural effusion.

What is a pleural effusion?: The lungs are covered by a membrane or lining, called the pleura, which has an inner layer and an outer layer. The inner layer covers the lungs. The outer layer lines the rib cage and diaphragm, which is a sheet of muscle which separates the chest from the abdomen. The pleura produces a fluid which acts as a lubricant that helps you to breathe easily, allowing the lungs to move in and out smoothly. Sometimes too much of this fluid can build up between the two layers of the pleura: this is called a pleura effusion.

Causes: Pleural effusions are quite common and are often due to infections such as pneumonia, or heart failure, when the heart is not pumping the blood efficiently around the body. A pleural effusion can also be a symptom of several types of cancer. A pleural effusion usually develops if cancer cells have spread into the membrane lining the lungs, where they can lead to irritation and cause fluid to build up.

At this point I am awaiting a CT scan on Monday to see what the next step is going to be. If there is still a significant amount of fluid my doctor will drain the area in order to relieve some of the pressure. This is done by placing a small tube in between my ribs in my back and allowing the fluid to flow out into jars. Dr. Reeder will then have to determine whether or not I am going to go ahead and complete the last day of treatment or start an entirely new type of chemotherapy. I am hoping that I just have to do the last day as I am already feeling ill and don't want another weeks worth of chemicals pumped into my body! I will be sure to update my blog tomorrow as soon as I hear any news...