Stem Cells!

Carla has done quite well this week.  On Thursday, her blood tests results were ALL within the normal range!  She was able to get her melphalan IV as scheduled.  We made certain Carla's mouth and throat were cold as she ate ice and drank ice water for about 30 minutes prior to taking the melphalan and also for about 30 minutes afterwards.  The melphalan attacks rapidly growing cells and the cells lining of the mouth and throat are of this type.  The cold temperatures cause the blood vessels to constrict and therefore less melphalan gets to them.  Hopefully Carla won't get bad mouth sores.

Friday she got slight over six million of her stem cells replaced.  The transplant process took about 4 hours.  She first had to have the blood tests and wait about an hour for the results.  They don't move her harvested stem cells from storage until they know they can progress with the transplant.  The blood tests, wait for test results and wait for delivery of the stem cells took about two hours.

Carla's APN nurse had to administer the actual transfusion via an IV drip.  I planned to get a picture during this process but was listening to the instructions from the APN about Carla's care over the next two weeks that the actual transfusion was over before I could get the camera out.  It only took about 15 or 20 minutes for the transfusion.  The first side effect I noticed was Carla had this "creamed corn" smell.  The stem cells are preserved using DMSO.  This odor is released through a patients skin for two or more days.  Carla wasn't able to detect the odor. 

Here is a picture of Carla taken during the two-hour wait after the transfusion.  They make the patients stay for at least two-hours so they can monitor all vital signs to see if there is any adverse reaction.

As you can see, Carla had to have oxygen throughout this process and get a saline IV.  The netbook computer is a recent item that I got for Carla.  It weighs less than 3 pounds and she can use it in the hospital 7C while she waits for blood test results and for IV's to finish.  I also brought a wireless router back this time so she can have network access in her bed or recliner.

When we paid our rent this month, we let the church representative know that with Carla's back problems she wasn't able to sit in the recliner or chairs in the apartment.  Yesterday they exchanged our old worn out recliner for a much nicer one.  Carla has been able to use the recliner now.

Yesterday, we finished the lab work about 11:00.  The temperature was about 60 degrees with plenty of sunshine.  We decided we wanted to get out before Carla's blood counts dropped.  So we rushed home to make sandwiches and headed to Hot Springs, AR.  Hot Springs is billed as being the first resort in the US.  We took an elevator to the top of Mountain Tower and toured a restored bath house.  It was a great day!

Now we are in the waiting game.  Carla's blood counts had dropped a lot today.  The APN said she would probably experience fatigue, diarrhea and mouth sores with the worst period being about a week after the stem cell transplant.  We look forward to having all of that behind us!