The Journey Thus Far, Part 3

Click Here To Read Part 1 or Part 2

The stem cell transplant was in August 2005, I believe. It was a month long process that required my mom to stay at a hotel in New Haven, in case there was an emergency. I was her caregiver during this time.

First off, going to Yale/New Haven was a eye opener. I'd never heard of this type of cancer and most people I talk to haven't either. Visiting Dr. Hollister's office wasn't a good judge because there are three doctors in the practice and I believe they all treat different types of cancer. But the Yale clinic was full of patients many whom has this type of cancer. Each day the chairs (at least 20 of them) were full of new people coming in for various treatments. This was just the out patient clinic, there were also people hospitalized due to reactions to treatments. Thank you Lord we never had to visit this section. My next post will be all about MM-for those who don't know what it is.

The stem cell process starts with moving the stem cells from the bone marrow to the blood. This is done through daily injections of a drug Neupogen. For about 3 or 4 days, we'd go to the hospital early in the morning to have blood work done to find out the number of stem cells in the blood. We'd wait and wait (I knitted, my mom slept) until the results came back. If it wasn't enough, mom got another injection and we'd go back to the hotel. The side effects of this process is bone pain because the stem cells are being drawn out of the marrow which just sounds painful. These days moved very slowly. I believe there were a few tests to make sure her body could handle the collection. Once her numbers came back in 'go' range she had a semi-permanent needle put in her neck/chest-I don't remember what this is called a PIC line or something like that. Then the next day we went to a new section of the hospital...Apheresis.

This is were her stem cells were harvested through a dialysis type process. She'd sit attached to a machine and rest while I did more knitting. The nurses here were SO nice, it made me want to go into this area of medicine. They'd process her cells, taking out the bad stuff and froze them to be injected later. Once they had enough, I think it took 3 days, it was time for the really hard stuff: high-dose chemotherapy. But before I get to that I wanted to add that we met two other women in the apheresis unit who were going through the same thing. The three amigos. It was such a blessing to have someone for my mom to share this part of the journey with. Unfortunately, both women had complications and were admitted into the hospital and we never saw them again.

When high-dose chemo day came I remember us both feeling nervous. When they came over with mom's 'jar' we apprehensively looked at each other and I think one of us said, "There no turning back now." I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting from the chemo. She got her injections, we did some more waiting and then went home. Her hair didn't fall out, she didn't start throwing up, there was nothing different about that day. Of course the effects came eventually and then my work began.

I can't remember if it was the same day or a few days later, but eventually her stem cells were put back in. I'll call that day "cream corn" day because one of the effects of the freezing/thawing process was a strong cream corn odor that lingered. No amount of warning prepared me for that. Once the smell hit my nose I just smiled, it really does smell like cream corn, it's amazing.

The next weeks were filled with daily hospital visits to check mom's blood numbers, lots of sleepless nights, complicated pill regiments, and a hotel room change. The effect of the chemo weren't fun for my mom and it was difficult at times knowing what pain she must have been in. There was lots of monitoring to be done, my main job was to keep watch for fever. And my mom will attest that I took my job very seriously. I did everything short of wake her up to take her temperature. We had to wait until my mom's blood count returned to normal and for a number of days she was just below. It seemed the day would never come, but finally it did approval to go home!!!

There were lots of doctor visits and blood work after we left the hospital but eventually we found out my mom was in partial remission. The only drugs she had to continue on were the Zometa injections (which she still gets).

The past 3 years have been spent in that partial remission. She's had to check in often with her regular oncologist and her transplant specialist. They've been happy with her progress but there has been a slow rise in the cancer numbers. This week they saw a bigger jump in her numbers and are considering starting treatments again. The numbers are still low but seem to be on a steady upward trend. We knew this would happen eventually and are now facing the next steps we have to take. Thus this blog started.