+4 & +5 : the tranplant code calendar

I probably need to shed more light on this daily count up schedule. When they perform a stem cell transplant the mission is to quite simply kill off almost all of my white blood cells and plasma cells, yet keep a small amount of red blood cells to keep moving oxygen around my body while I recover. So on -1 day, I got a Chemo IV – one time- no pain- no big deal.

The next day, Day Zero, I go back in for hours and in between hydration IV’s, They infused 4.9 million of my very own stem cells back into me. This is the “transplant”! Miraculously, easy, no pain. Literally, I was listening to music and sending emails and texts to friends and clients through out the day.

Ok, here is how the analogy my Doctor told me goes:

If you are 5 miles down river from a dam and the river is flowing full, this is day 1. Now Day 2, they close the dam completely, but there is still 5 miles of water to roll down stream. Each day following, the water level drops and by day 5 or 6 the water dries up.

So as the Chemo drug absorbs, so does its job to kill off cancer cells, then it will just dissipate and be gone; so do my blood labs go down. The goal is to get a few markers in my bone marrow plasma as close to zero as possible!

Then the miracle of a combination of the human body, the biological medical advances and the Mayo Clinic team come together with my body and mind power to start re-producing all of my new, cancer free stem cells.

Ok, back to the River analogy.

Day +6 through Day+10 usually is the toughest. River is dry, dam is closed. But the good news is that Day 6 or Day 7, they Re-open the dam and the flood gates start to release the water. Slowly, the river water trickles its way down stream and starts to wet the dry soil. Each day the water level rises and by Day 10 or 11 river is running wild.

This time is called “engraftment ” when the stem cells are multiplying by the thousands and then millions every day, and new life is brought back into the weary bones. It takes time but the goal is to build back up to a certain level by Day 21. ( I asked on Day-1, what is the best “release date ” on record is and a nurse told me they had a marathon runner get out on Day 18).

Of course, that is now my Target release date 😀 but I am not a marathon runner, like Beyke, so I might need an extra day or two.

Enough of the that!

Fun stuff today- after a quick appointment this morning, we did some exploring in Rochester and found the Soldiers Memorial Park, went on a shopping hunt for silly things like : lavender oil diffuser, because the older house we rented smells like a barn?!?And MN has this incredible potato chip dip called ” Top the Tator”, which I forgot about after leaving MN 15 years ago.

OMG- it is so fricking simple good, I will probably gain 5 pounds now that I found it.

And since we got Netflix working yesterday we were able to start working on Bob Leon’s UK TV binge list. Coupling could not have been a better one to start with!! I knew I would relate to your humour…. just gotta keep piling through them to get to your favorite ” the false leg?”

And a shout out to Pepperman’s region for all of the Warm Fuzzies sent today! I can’t wait to see you all in July and get to know you even better.

Sweet dreams😴