Today has been crazy busy. I just got up from a nap following my apheresis. I guess the best way to begin would be to loop back to the beginning and start from there.
This morning I got up at 6:15 am, showered, and headed to the blood donor center. I was nervous, just about the needles and the whole procedure. My Mom got to the center a little before 7:00 (6:53 am - can you tell I was paying attention?). We waited in the waiting room until Doreen came down to greet us. I filled out all my paperwork then got my fifth set of injections. After that it was wait, wait and wait some more to allow the filgrastim to start working.
Okay, so it was probably only 15 minutes or so before they called me in to the donation room. Jackie and Melissa, two nurses/apheresis specialists, hooked me up to the machine. It was kind of surreal at first. An IV in my left hand and a blood donation needle in the crook of my right arm. I almost cried, not because it hurt, but because I think I was a little overwhelmed.
At first the apheresis machine beeped at me a lot, indicating that the flow pressure was low and that Jackie should check the needle to make sure my blood was flowing well. Once I calmed down and got talking more the machine stopped beeping. The procedure itself wasn't that bad. I remebered not to move my right arm (good) and just relaxed.
The nurses were fun to be around and helped the 5 hours go by much more quickly than I thought. Nick came by at a little past 9:30 am. It was fun to watch him because he got to see the donation from a new perspective after having donated. He brought a peanut butter fudge cheesecake, which was absolutely amazing. Everyone thought it was wicked cute that he had done that. It definitely got him bonus points from all of the blood donor center staff.
Thankfully I didn't feel "tingly" from the anti-coagulant and I didn't feel nauseas or faint. I really think the nurses at the blood donor center helped, they kept me amused and made new friends. The experience with the Rhode Island Blood Center has been absolutely amazing.
What woke me up from my nap was that Dr. Young called and let me know that I definitely have to go back to the blood center tomorrow for round two of apheresis. My Mom had gotten her hopes up that we might not have to go back after being told today that there was a possibility we wouldn't need to. The donation today resulted in half of the CD-34 cells that the people doing the transplant want for my recipient. I am really hoping that tomorrow we can get the second half that they want.
Dr. Young also told me that my plasma levels, after tomorrow's donation, are going to be on the low side of healthy. That means that I have to be very careful for a while not to cut myself badly or to play full-contact sports because my ability to stop bleeding will be lowered. Oh and my white blood cell count continued to rise, it was originally 7.2 (first day) then it went up 25.2 and after my injections today it was 30.4.
Now that I've been through one apheresis I'm not so nervous about doing another one, which is good. I know that I just need to relax and go with the flow (no pun intended, although that would be a good one haha).
Well its off to the Providence Place Mall for my Mom and myself, I get to buy my Easter present now! Woo hoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment