Day 15 - It's all about the numbers.

Total WBC for yesterday was 2.4. That is very good. Neutrophils came in at 1.21. Platelets were up again at 33. Lymphocytes were .81. Dr. Lacy told us a lymphocyte count of .81 at day 15 corresponds to good prognosis and long remissions.

Here is the progression of WBC for comparison: Day 7 < .1; Day 12 = .6; Day 13 = .8; Day 14 = 1.5; Day 15 = 2.4.

Dr. Lacy ordered a 24 hour urine test so I am assuming they will tell me my IgG and M spike (if any) Thursday. She also discontinued the growth factor shots. She said WBC usually goes down a bit when the shots are discontinued.

More later...

Day 14 - About WBC

Later... I suppose we need to preempt some technobable with some good news. However, the technobable may help in understanding the good news, probably, but you never know. Anyway, I was told my WBC doubled from .8 x 10^9/ml to 1.5 x 10^9/ml. That is one billion five hundred million wbc per millileater of blood. That is a real good thing. And since 48% of that number is neutrophils, I have about 760 million. All of these are being made by me with a little nudging from 560 micrograms of growth factor every day. They are supposed to discontinue the growth factor after tomorrow. Another important number they want to see come up and stay there is the platelet count. Mine for today was 26. They were real impressed with that and rightfully so because they are being made by me. The normal range is 150 - 450. I don't know how high my platelets have to get before they call what they have done a success. Apparently it is "successful" now as far as the new stem cells wandering back to where they came from and going to work. We will probably keep splitting hares for a week or so until they decide I can fly the coop.


Earlier... No, it isn't about Weather Blizzard Conditions (WBC). Although, we are getting a dusting of snow as I speak. The 10 PM weather showed 6 - 8 inches in and around The cities but only around 2 inches south in Rochester. Maybe we won't have as much to sweep off our cars today.

About White Blood Cells (WBC). That is the major subject of interest these days. I was told by a doc on Wednesday, my total WBC was 0.6 x 10^9 / ml. I'm not exactly sure as to whether it is ml or dl or l but I will get that cleared up later. At any rate, to make this a bit more understandable, you move the decimal place 9 places to the right to get a number. We will take it in steps of three to make it easier to understand. .6 x 10^3=600 (move decimal place three places to the right). 600 x 10^3=600,000 (see how easy this is). 600,000 x 10^3=600,000,000/ml. Now, if we wanted to, we could have started .6 x 10^9/ml = 600,000,000 white blood cells per millileter of blood.

Anyway, my WBC was about 600 million last Tuesday. Now, that was a major improvement over previous counts where WBC was virtually not detectable - scary thought. Yesterday, I was told the count was up to 800 million. Of that, one third were nutrophils which means I had roughly 280 million nutrophils. Remember, the magic number is 500 or better three days in a row for me to be considered to be making my own white blood cells again.

In case you think I might be making some of the following up and/or just want to dig a little deeper, here is one of many possible sources for you:
http://www.realnurseed.com/t1000.htm

In case you might be wondering, WBC is a total count of all white blood cells which are numerous and various as we shall see. Most numerous among the white blood cells there are neutrophils (also called granulocytes, most important infection fighters and usually most numerous 50 to 65 percent or so of the total and to complicate matters more are sometimes also referred to as segs or polys), next most numerous are lymphocytes.

Lymphocytes are B-cells and T-cells, "baby" cells that differentiate into other blood cells. They take up about 30 to 45 percent of the total. Keep in mind these numbers are only theoretical ranges to give you an idea of the relatively quantities. Theoretically, Neutrophils would outnumber Lymphocytes quite a bit for a healthy balalnce. Obviously you need to have more "grown" cells out there than "baby" cells. When the Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) drops below 2000 (and 1500 in some labs), you would have a disorder called Neutropenia. As the ANC drops lower and lower, you become more and more immune suppressed and thus susceptible to disease or infection.

As pointed out by the character Ulysses Everett McGill on O' Brother Where Art Thou... "there are other lesser imps and demons out there." In addition to Neutrophils and Lymphocytes, there are Monos, Basos, Esinophils, Bands, and Segs, and no telling what all else. And as we have seen, some of these are subsets of Neutrophils.

I suppose the most important point of all this technobable is that Neutrophenia can be brought on by non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, chronic Lymphocytic Lukemia (CCL), or chemotherapy. It gives us one more thing to occupy our already overburdened minds as to personal health issues. My point is that if you have something that has been seen by a doctor or doctors several times but still has same or similar symptoms that just won't seem to go away, maybe it isn't old age or just normal aches and pains. Maybe you need to tell your doctor you think you might have a disease. I did, and I did.

'Nuf said. I'll be back here later with more information about my WBC numbers and hopefully much less technobable. Stay tuned...

Day 13 - The Weather

I suppose I am a bit over due talking about the weather. We are currently experiencing temperatures which are ten degrees above seasonal norms for Minnesota. Snow on the ground and roof tops is melting away more and more every day. We are beginning to see patches of grass in places. The sky has remained overcast with light ground fog for days.

There is a lot of concern about this and rightfully so. The earth is slowly warming up and we are getting less cool weather. However, that is just fine with me for now. After we leave Iowa/Minnesota they can have all the arctic blasting and snow their little hearts' desire. I much prefer a high of 33 degrees over that of 7 degrees. The weather guy said the other night, this weather pattern shows no sigh of letting up any time soon due to a flow from the Pacific. He said we need an arctic front to come in and sweep all the clouds and cool damp weather away. That translates into more snow and 7 degree highs.

I remember when I was a kid growing up in El Dorado, AR, we could count on snow almost every year. I suppose by the time I was in Junior High School, the snow came less and less often. I remember wearing heavy coats and shivering at football games in September when we first moved to Columbus, MS. Now you might have to wear a heavy coat in November.

Also, I remember living in Waukegan, IL while I was in the Navy during the winter. The snow plows would create great twenty foot dunes of dirty snow that would sit on the sides of the roads until the spring thaw. People around here say it used to be the same way here but now all you get at most is a pile here and there six feet tall at best which soon begins to melt away. We don't have any of those big huge piles now and most all the sidewaks are clear too.

Well, that's your latest weather report from your hippie dippie weather man. Stay tuned for more action later.

Day 12

Well, we made it to day 12. Yesterday I actually felt good from about four A.M. until about seven A.M. Today I felt not good, but better all day compared with two days ago. So far I have managed to skip getting fluids, or platelets, or blood for the last several days. That means I don't have to spend lots of time at station 94 hooked up to an IV drip machine. They tell me my white cell counts have come from undetectable to barely detectable so that is an improvement. The real test is 500 nutrophils or better three days in a row. Hopefully that will happen this week. I still have to force myself to eat because I don't get hungry and food tastes like paste. I still manage to get twelve or fifteen hundred calories a day. The nutritionist would like to see two thousand or better but that hasn't happened but maybe once.

Days 10 and 11

It gets monotonous after a while doesn't it. I pretty much now know what it is like to be a walking dead man, so to speak. I go to the Methodist Hospital Eisenberg building 9th floor nursing station 4 twice a day. They take blood samples so they can check my complete blood count (which tells them how many white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets I have or don't have is more like it) and my electrolytes. As I have mentioned before, my white blood cell count is down in the basement which is both a good and bad thing. It is good because it indicates the high dose chemotherapy is working (recall one of the nurses said it was enough to kill six people and I believe it has just about killed me six times :) Obviously, it is bad because bacteria living on my skin and inside me can kill me. That is why I wear a surgical mask in public and go twice a day and get two kinds of IV antibiotics. So far, they have been able to keep everything in check. I get a fever and chills once or twice a day which is controlled with Tylenol. The antibiotics mess up my stomach so I don't care to eat anything and almost never get hungry -- so I have to force myself as much as possible. Which is hard when delicious chocolate confections you would normally have to force yourself to avoid taste more like dirt and tend to make you gag. One of the aspects of shutting down your salivary glands and mucosa with chemo is that food no longer tastes the same. So you have to be careful what you shove in your big mouth thinking how delicious it has always tasted in the past. Sometimes that holds but most of the time it doesn't because just about everything tastes different.

Anyway, back to station 94, I got side tracked. The results of the CBC also tells them whether I need platelets and/or red blood cells. They have given me platelets almost every time I have been in there for the last four days. So far, they have given me four units of blood because my red blood cells were real low. Of course, until my stem cells begin to ingraft and begin making all the various kinds of blood cells I need. Station 94 has to keep me alive with an auxiliary supply.

The BIG day 8 and 9

Apparently, this is the beginning of the end, at least me feeling so sick. I probably have a few more ahead of me. I am so looking forward to eating a PaPa John's thin crust pizza with the works and not giving it a thought whether it will make me sick or if I can only eat four and a half baby bites. Right now, the only real food that would compare to that is an orange popsicle.

Among other things, sometime around day 8 is when the mucosa stops being able to absorb regular doses of oral antibiotic medicine and since they have me on two, that puts me at a slight disadvantage. Apparently my fever was slowly rising the previous day or two which meant my internal bacteria were beginning to get the upper hand. Another indication was that I stayed cold all the time (now I am actually sweating in the same temperature room I was shivering in a few hours ago with same amount of clothes.)

About eight last night I felt like I had flu times ten only no sinus trouble. My temp was 101.3. I called station 94 to report it and was told I needed to come in for an IV drip of antibiotics (which I will be doing for the next several days). The drip went for a couple of hours and collect more blood and urine specimen. They gave me some Tylenol and I felt fairly decent when I left. Same thing begins all over again today.

LATER... well, it wasn't exactly the same thing. I went in at 10 AM to get blood work, day antibiotics, and platelets. As it turned out, in addition to that, I got two units of blood and my nightly antibiotics. We walked out of the hospital about 8:30. The SS Minnow set out for a two hour cruise and wound up marooned at station 94 for ten hours. Just kidding.

I did get to eat dinner while I was there - Meat Loaf w/mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes with beef gravy, green beans, and tapioca pudding - yum! I guess you noticed all the extra "sauce." When your mouth doesn't make the sauce, the food should - 'nuf said.

I needed all the extra stuff that kept me there longer obviously. I can't complain because every hour spent at station 94 is one less hour for me to get in trouble or infected somewhere else. These next several days, "Will be froth with peril," the Oracle, O' Brother.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga. I am told things should slowly get better from here on out.

Shelby Page Woodhead (still more pictures added 1/3/05)

Born at 08:08, 24 Dec 2005 at the Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan. Matt, Mandi, and Shelby are doing very well. Shelby has brown hair and blue eyes and weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces. She is 21 inches long. We look forward to checking up on them every day for the next several days.

More pictures at ShutterFly.com:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcNmzdo4ctGHt

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome\?sid=8AcNmzdo4ctGH8

DAY 7 12/23/05

Haven't been feeling much like a writer last several days. Acid stomach has been a real battle not to mention trying to get enough liquid and calories to keep energy level up. In spite of that, we have walked to the clinic most every day - sometimes coming and going, up hill both ways in a snow storm - ha.

In the Radio business, we sometimes work with receivers which are defective and try to restore them to their factory specifications. One test we do is to inject an on-carrier signal and successively reduce it's amplitude to some predetermined amount. The weaker the signal that can be received by the receiver, the stronger and more fit it is deemed to be. Sometimes a receiver is so good, it will receive weak signals which are "down in the grass," a term we use which indicates only a slight difference between signal level and background noise.

At any rate, I was down in the proverbial grass yesterday. I think they told me my white cell cout is now down to .1 or something like that. Normal healthy people have absolute Neutrifil counts around 1.5. They started giving me small dose of growth factor beginning yesterday so my counts sound start to come back up. We are looking for three days of .5 or better to indicate I am beginning to make my own.

We talked to Mandi and Matt last night. They have Mandi in a hospital room and Matt shackled to one of the bed rails - just kidding - you couldn't pry Mat away. Shelby should make her debut very soon and we are praying for every success and that everything goes for the best for the three of them.

May God bless you and your family especially at this special time of year!

DAY 3 12/19/05

Today was pretty much like yesterday--- go get blood tests, get examined, get sent on my way until tomorrow or something like dehydration or low red blood cell count causes them to call me back in for a drip. I have to take a dozen pills to keep bacteria and fungus from being a problem in addition to the three pills to help keep my stomach on an even keel. That works fair most of the time but still a constant battle with gas and discomfort. It is becoming a real chore to find food I can eat but so far staying fed as much as possible. They say this gets worse over the next several days so we may be skipping some days on the blog unless I am feeling especially good or something comes up I feel a strong urge to write about.

We have received a ton of cards and letters which we want everyone to know we appreciate the thoughts and prayers going with each one of them.

Enjoy the season!

Day 2 12/18/05

Well, guess I skipped a day. Yesterday was a blur. Went to get checked at station 9-4 late AM, Then off the WalMart to do shopping. That did me in. Also had bad case of acid stomach. Started taking Nexium to help with that.

Felt pretty good this morning. Ate breakfast then off to station 9-4 (which will be a daily ritual for a while) to get CBC and electrolyte blood work, checked by RN, Checked by MD, sent on my way until another day.

We finally made it back in the deep freeze here again -- zero at noon.

More later...

DAY 0 12/16/05

Well, here we are at day zero. They gave me a certificate signed by the duty RN's after my ten hour infusion process. I am fairly tired but not so bad I can't sit up and peck away at the keyboard. Here is a song I listened to recently by the Beatles, Here Comes the Sun:

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right

DAY -1 12/15/05

Same song second verse. I got another bag of lethal chemo this morning. All went well except station 9-4 called a while ago and told me my hemocrit was low so they want me to come back and get two units of blood (two hours each). I'll get that started around 3:30 this afternoon.

We only got a little additional snow. I think the official estimate ranges from five to seven inches depending on which expert you ask. They did close the schools around here so you know it was significant. As far as the major roads go, it is amazing what a kiloton of salt spread appropriately will do to a Minnesota blizzard! The side streets are a little less healed but the heavily traveled main streets are pretty much clear.

I'll be "tied up" pretty much all day and then some tomorrow and they tell me I will be pretty well worn out so there may not be a "DAY 0" update which is fitting because there isn't really a day 0. For that matter, there isn't a day -1 or -2 either but we like the way it sounds so we keep using it. So stick this in for day 0 then. I'll be tied up all day, probably, but you never know.

Another point you might want to jot down, my daughter who resides with her husband Cap'n. Matt in Okinawa, Japan is due to have our first GRAND daughter, Miss. Shelby Page, I predict right about now because of the full moon but if not right about now then shortly. You all please say a little prayer for the three of them and Matt's grandmother who we all love, admire, and adore who has traveled over to the Ryukyuan Kingdom of old from sunny Utah to be with them during the blessed event.

Stay tuned for further developments.

DAY -2

In the stem cell transplant world of time management and record keeping, we count the days. Everything revolves around infusion of stem cells. This is DAY ZERO. Chemo days are prior to infusion so they are negative. Days after infusion are counted with a view to the day engraftment occurs. We may continue to count until at some point in the future we become apathetic. There will be a 100 day checkup. There will be some other milestones along the way and we will jump off that bridge when we come to it.

Me and Hickman are getting along better and better. I almost don't know it is there except for the two tubes taped to my chest.

I was issued a mask and told to wear it everywhere I go in public and outside my room at the Transplant House. Wearing the mask isn't much fun but getting someone else's disease is less fun. It isn't unusual to see a lot of people wearing masks at the clinic and even a few people at WalMart or at other stores.

I had my first of two rounds of Melphalan this morning. The RN commented there was enough Melphalan in the bag to kill three people - interesting. I told him I have nine lives. The Melphalan will begin killing bone marrow, mucosa, and other fast growing cells beginning today. It basically leaves the red and white blood cells I have alone so I will not begin to get really immunosuppressed for a few days. The RN told me I will feel like I have the flu times ten. I picked up about ten bottles of pills at the pharmacy this morning so I am hoping that will help me feel as good as possible.

I'm supposed to get up and move around and be as active as possible so I probably should get up from here and go up and down the three flights of stares here in the house a couple more times. Stay tuned for further developments. We publish all the news that is the news.

SNOW 12/14/05 PM

Just in time to get right in the middle of my chemotherapy -- two inches this morning with an additional three inches throughout the day and possibly another inch tomorrow. Then we go back into the deep freeze. The good thing is that we can ride the shuttle today and tomorrow. Friday the show should be plowed off the roads so we can drive in at 6 AM to begin the twelve hour infusion process.

2:30 PM... Well, you know you are getting some serious snow in Minneapolis when they declare a snow emergency and the schools are closed. When a snow emergency is declared, it is illegal to park in snow plow routes among other things. According to the WCCO noon weather, we are in the 3 to 6 inch band of the show storm. We should keep getting snow off and on until Friday. It isn't a real big deal for us so far because we can ride the shuttle to the clinic and the roads are still slushy enough so we can still drive on them if we need to.

7 PM... The WCCO weather guy said we got six inches already with about another one inch to come and colder temperatures. I went out about four and raked the six inches of wet snow off the car. After tonight it could become three inches of ice with three inches of crust and an inch of light powder on top. Brooming wet snow is preferable to chipping ice.

Hickman 12/13/05

Well, I spent most of the AM with MD's and most of the PM with RN's. It's been a regular alphabet soup kind of day. The Hickman catheter was surgically implanted by Dr. Krom who is Dutch. He is fun to be around because he has a real jovial kind of personality. One example: it is very unusual for me to spend a day at the clinic without someone saying either, "So, where are you from," or "So, you're not from around here then?" "So - then" sentence construction is VERY Minnesotan. Then we usually talk about who has the bigger accent, Southerners or Minnesotans (I personally think it is a tie except the tie breaker has to do with where you happen to be located at the time). But I do enjoy listening to people speak Minnesotan probably about as much as they like to hear me talk.

Anyway, getting back to Dr. Krom and his jovialness. Shortly after he introduced himself, he stopped the conversation and said, "By the way, my accent is Dutch -- I am from Holland." I suppose when you live here like he does and get the comment, "You're not from around here then, are you?" fired at you twenty times a day, you get in the habit of heading them off at the pass by being first on the draw. I replied to his kindly volunteered information by saying, "My accent is Southern North American." We both laughed. You never know when a person from Holland might need a little assistance with the location of an accent and I am sure he could tell I'm not from around here, probably, but you never know.

In case you might have been curious about the catheter, it IS painful. It is going to take a few days to get used to I am sure. It also comes with excess baggage like maintenance and upkeep and dangely things that have to be secured. The needles in the arms every day were maybe slightly preferable to the catheter all things considered.

Well, after eleven hours at the clinic and a couple shopping for groceries, I'm pooped. They tell us we will be getting three to six inches more snow tonight and all day tomorrow. We have had snow on the ground since day after Thanksgiving. We have this snow all shoveled off the sidewalks and streets so it is about time the old snow was freshened up a bit and we got more snow moving work to do.

Stay tuned for more exciting news... same time same station tomorrow.

Next Phase 12/12/05

Today is a day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Of course it is very easy to be happy and glad when you are feeling good. You might not be feeling too good right now and not feeling too much like rejoicing but it is the thought that counts.

The duty nurse coordinator gave me a verbal itinerary for the week. We start with a visit with a surgeon to discuss "installing" a central line (probably a Hickman). You can read all about it at the following web site.

http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Linesports/Centralline

The port gets installed tomorrow. I expect to be knocked out from the anesthesia most all day. Wednesday and Thursday they plan on administering high dose Melphalan. Friday they will infuse some of the stem cells they collected earlier. Then we wait for the stem cells to engraft over the next several days.

Transplant House Rules Regarding Flowers

One of the reasons we chose to stay at the Gift of Life Transplant House is because they do their best to provide a germ free environment for transplant patients who are immune suppressed. That means there are people living here who have no immune systems due to their treatment which makes them more susceptible to infection than usual. Therefore, we have agreed to abide by the house rules regarding cleanliness. We are supposed to inform our friends and guests of these rules as they might apply. One rule you might not think about is regarding flowers.

Following is a quote from the Guest Manual: "Live flowers and plants are not allowed due to the immune-suppressed state of our patients. Bacteria can be carried easily in soil and water. Silk floral and balloon arrangements are a nice alternative."

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the very nice cards and letters. We sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Update 12/10/05

They called last night and said I collected .69 million. That brings the total to 8.74 million which is good enough for my doctor to call the collection process quits. They said they would call me Monday morning with the itinerary for the next phase.

Apheresis 12/8/05

Technically, it is referred to as Apheresis OR Peripheral Blood Stem (or progenitor if you want to be real straight laced about it) Cell (PBSC) Collection. And if so desired, an even higher level of specificity can be obtained by tacking CD34+ on the front of Peripheral Blood Progenitor Cell. Or, when discussing between friends, just stem cell collection (or harvest sometimes).

I had my stem cells collected again today -- felt like someone hit me with a hammer when it was over five hours later. They collected .77 million which brings the total to 7.9 million. We will see what is collected tomorrow and decide whether to stop then or continue growth factor (Neupogen) through the weekend and give it one more attempt Monday. The minimum quantity of stem cells required for engraftment according to some authorities is 2 million per kilogram for engraftment to occur within 10 to 14 days ( whatever that means). All I know is that my doctor told me I needed 3 million for a transplant and we want to collect enough for three transplants. That's nine million.

Neupogen is interesting stuff. Essentially, it is a molecular concoction which uses e-choli bacteria as a transportation device into which has been inserted the human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) gene. In other words, genetic hocus pocus. Technically, it is referred to as Filgrastim but the trademark slapped on it by Amgen, Inc. is Neupogen. If that isn't good enough then they also have a timed release form which is called Neulasta (betcha have heard of that every fifteen minutes or so off and on between your favorite TV show). It essentially increases neutrophil production or, in my case, "mobelizes" CD34+ PBPC.

Anyway, that is the stuff they have been pumping into me at the rate of 1200 micrograms a day since we began collection and twice a day for the last four days or so. That's about all the technobabel I can throw at you today so thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for further developments.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy 12/7/05

In case you are wondering what day that might be, it is Pearl Harbor day. A generation ago, it had as bad an affect on them as 9/11 has on us today. The thought of it made Americans (that's North Americans but not too far North) fighting mad. My wife and I visited Okinawa, Japan not too long ago and took a tour of battle sites lead by a walking talking WW2 encyclopedia which was very educational and moving. My uncle survived the death march of Batan and my dad was five miles off the coast of Pearl Harbor on the USS Enterprise at the time of the bombing. And since I served six years in the U.S. Navy, I guess you could say I sort of have a vested interest in remembering the day.

As I mentioned earlier, they gave me the day off from stem cell harvesting today. I needed that! We went to WalMart (where else). The sky was clear and bright again today. The outside air temperature gauge inside my car read 4 degrees. My vehicle has been telling me it has low tire pressure ever since we got here. I have been putting off adding air until today. I stopped at a filling station on the way to check the pressure. I got out my tire pressure gauge and proceeded to air up the tires. The front one checked at about 22 pounds which is not so bad for those jumbo seventeen inch tires especially in the cold Minnesota weather. I pumped them up to the factory recommended 32 pounds. Then I proceeded to the rear tire, removed the cap, applied the pressure gauge the head of which immediately broke off and fell on the ground. I must have got a lucky green light on the way or some other good fortune for which this was a counterbalbancing event. As they say in Minnesota (and in Mississippi too as a matter of fact -- at least I do) oh well, it could be worse. I then proceeded to inflate the tires by sight. I made sure I added too much air so I could let some out after I purchased a new tire gauge at WalMart later. As it turned out, I got about 50 pounds in the right front. I deflated the remaining three ungauged tires to the recommended 32 pounds (or thereabouts). Now I should be square with the overall scheme of things, probably, but you never know.

Bob, one of the nurse coordinators, called a while ago and told me my CD34 protein level from the blood draw this morning was 9.4. It isn't a 10 like they like to see but its good enough for them to want to see me back in the harvest bay tomorrow morning at seven. But that doesn't get me off the hook for my nightly growth factor injection at 8 PM tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I am hoping they will collect over a million stem cells tomorrow and I can be finished with the collection process by Friday.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Nice Day 12/6/05

First, for the medical update. They called this afternoon and told me they collected .34 million (that’s 340 thousand) stem cells today. That isn’t enough to proceed. Therefore, I will go in tonight at 8 to get more growth factor. I will go in tomorrow at 7 for a blood test and growth factor injection. I will “rest” tomorrow and continue growth factor injections twice a day until my CD34 level comes up to 10 again. I was about ready for a break anyway.

This is the third day of beautiful clear blue skis and bright sunshine. According to Minnesota wisdom, there is a balance to everything that happens. So if something good happens, it is followed by something bad and vice versa. Or two good things in a row could be followed by a bad, another good, and two bads. The point is, things balance out sooner or later. Therefore, every time something good happens to you, it isn’t necessarily a reason for unbridled glee. It might be more a reason to proceed with cautious optimism, probably, but you never know.

I looked out the window of the tenth floor of the Gonda building around 2 PM after completion of my stem cell collection at the American flag on top of the Plummer building across the street. The flag was hanging limp almost motionless. That doesn’t happen too often.

I remember when we first arrived here in Rochester, some friends took us to Uncle Monty’s Restaurant in a small town south of here to eat supper. On the way, we passed the airport with its runway lights all lighted. It sort of looked like a big Christmas tree had crashed out in the dark on the prairie. Not too long after that, I noticed what appeared to be a grid of red lights twenty or thirty feet off the ground out in the distance. I asked my friend if that was part of the airport. He told me it was not; that it was an array of huge tall wind mills which generate electric power. So you can see why it is rare to see the American flag hanging limp on a flag pole around here.

Thanks for checking in. Please check again later for further developments.

Diminishing Returns 12/5/05

Stem cell collection is one of those things that is easier said than done. It is also a “game” of diminishing returns. The longer you go, the less you get. We started out collecting a million a day and now we are collecting half a million a day. The total is now up to 6.8 million give or take ten thousand. You also begin to look like a pen cushion after a week or two of IV’s in each arm per day and two growth factor injections in the abdomen each day. If we can continue at the current rate of about .6 million per day, the total should be approximately 9 million on Friday.

One of the good things about stem cell collection is that I get to watch movies. They have a video system similar to that in a hotel or a transcontinental flight where you get to select a movie from a list except the list here is huge. I’ve watched both Harry Potter movies and Pirates of the Caribbean. I have also watched some of the educational stuff they offer like history of Mayo clinic and how Mayo clinic developed cortisone. Try holding one of your arms completely straight for five hours and see if it helps to take your mind off the pain watching a movie for a couple of hours. It is nice to have something continuous like that for a couple of hours without commercials.

Today was sunny as was yesterday so the snow has melted off the streets and sidewalks a bit. It doesn’t matter how much sun you have when the high is in the single digits snow doesn’t melt.

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for further developments.

Weekend Update 12/03/05

So far, they have collected about five or six million stem cells. Whether I am supposed to or not, I'm going to take the amount collected per day as a relative measure of the health of my bone marrow. Some people collect seven million or more in one day. These people have a disease but it does not affect their bone marrow and they are relatively young (35 or so). Even thought one point something million stem cells collected per day is a respectable number, I can't help compare it with seven million per day.

We woke to another blanket of snow this morning. We walked to the clinic on snow covered sidewalks in 14 degree air with almost no wind this morning. The sidewalks a block away from the clinic are heated so they were free of snow and dry. It didn't start snowing again until about mid-morning and continued to show for the remainder of the day. The bed I was in for stem cell collection was angled partially toward the window. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean on the TV by my bed as it snowed.

After my additional five hours in bed, we ate lunch at Victoria's Italian Restaurant around one PM. We walked through the underground to get there. We were seated in a booth in the front of the restaurant near the window. It was snowing hard. The street and everything else was covered with snow. There were horse drawn carriages traveling down the street in front of the restaurant at what would be a safe speed for all. They were loaded with people who were well wrapped. I suppose the horse drawn carriages only get out when travel conditions make the street a level playing field for them to share with cars.

After lunch, we had to exit the underground from the Kahler Grand Hotel lobby because the door to the Mayo clinic part of the underground locked behind us when we exited earlier. As we walked across the snow covered street in front of the hotel, I couldn't help but notice the hoof prints of the horses mingled with tire tracks in the street as I looked down trying to avoid anything I might not care to step on in the street. I bought some real nice rubber snow boots in preparation for our stay in the North country which I was wearing. However, they are only waterproof. And they have a fairly complicated tread pattern which helps with traction in the snow but which was most likely not designed with barnyard applications in mind! Now that I think about it, cowboy boots do usually have a flat leather sole.

Stay tuned for future updates.

M.S. and PhD 12/1/05

The weather in Minnesota functions on the M.S. and PhD. level -- More of the Same and Piled Higher and Deeper. We woke to a blanket of snow about two or three inches deep. It got down to about eight degrees last night. I read in How to Talk Minnesotan that the weather is a topic of conversation about 35% of the time in Minnesota. Can you tell?

We collected about 1.5 million stem cells today. Dr. Haymen told us that is a very respectable number. She also said the numbers usually start high and taper off but it is somewhat variable and unpredictable. If I keep going at this rate, I should be done with this in four or five more days. We are going to continue to collect through the weekend. It is more difficult than you might think to lay in a bed with a metal needle in your arm and not move it (much) for five hours. I will be glad when this part is finished. It also makes me very tired. I slept two hours yesterday and this afternoon. It seemed like I was more tired yesterday. Maybe I am just getting used to it.