I thought that an update from Walt on the transplant process would be good, while Cathi is on Chemo brain delay. After four days of giving myself shots of Neupogen in the belly it was transplant day. The Neupogen makes the bone marrow produce & release mass quantities of WBC's and Marrow stem cells (the prize) into the blood stream. It also makes the bones hurt, alot, as Cathi has pointed out. The pain started on Friday while I tried to sit and work all day, soon I found the more I moved around the less it bothered me, so I was up & down all day.

The transplant day started with a lovely 'good luck' note from Janet #2GOT, who pointed out that the oldest always wins, and breakfast with Sara Beth and Suzanne. We arrived at the hospital with Starbucks and a paper for a good morning sit with Cathi. Then it was off to the throne room. I called it the throne room as it was a small room with lots of equipment all centered around one chair. Kai was there to harvest the cells (he did it last time and was excellent). Kai hooked me up to a centrifuge machine about the size of an office copier. All the blood ran through a contained set of aquarium lines that were installed. A large needle was put in the right arm drawing blood and a smaller needle in the left arm returning the leftover blood parts (RBC's & Platelets). The centrifuge spun the blood into three parts and lines: WBC's & stem cells (they are both about the same weight), RBC's, and Platelets. The WBC's & stem cells were collected in an IV bag above the machine, which someone would come by, make a cheeky comment, then turn and squish as if to mix, every now & then. The remaining blood products were heated on a coil and returned back to me. Dr. Ganguly came by early on talking about getting 5 Million stem cells. They tested my blood for parts per Micro Liter. They said above 15 was OK, and preferred anything above 40. Score was 70 PPML for Walt.

The harvesting process took 5 hrs, and then extra for setup and teardown. All while Walt and Sara watched Star Wars (Sara Beth leads a sheltered life as she has never seen all of Star Wars, who could imagine such a thing?). All this time the R arm has to be stretched out with no movement. No BB prayers or pecking on the computer, R arm extended out and straight all the time.

Once completed the cells were tested for a final count. A total of 436ML were collected with a count of 12.5M stem cells. score another for Walt, Now he does not have to get another shot or donate for a second day. Cathi received all the cells, right out of the IV bag that collected them earlier that day. They just carried them down the hall in a playmate cooler and hooked them up and dropped them in. Not much drama, but they did make an exception to the two guest rule on Cathi's unit and let Mom & Dad and Walt & Suzanne stay in the room for lots of pictures.

Now the waiting begins. Waiting for Cathi to get over the Chemo sickness. Waiting for her counts to get up and immune system working agian. Waiting for the cells to multiply and then take over the hostile marrow cells causing the Leukemia. The cells should make Cathi sick, with the cells fighting each other (Graft vs. host disease), but in the end it will be all Walt's cells in Cathi's Marrow. Final Score Cathi.

Cathi is fighting and doing well to recover from the Chemo, but this chemo was twice as harsh as the chemo on the first transplant. She always enjoys the support of her friends & family & can have visitors as they are scheduled. The address on the blog was updated so cards will go direct to her hospital room. (It needs some decoration and pick me ups) Waiting for the counts to go up before going home, as Dr Abhyankar noted this morning may take a while. Time that is shortened with good company.

A special thanks to Sara for taking the day to help scratch my nose and tie my shoes while donating. Great to have family like that. Walt