Update time! This past week has been a busy one.

Starting this past Saturday I began doing two injections a day of a medication called neupogen. The whole point of the medication is to stimulate my bone marrow to create more stem cells and furthermore to release them into my bloodstream. Even from the perspective of someone who hates needles they really aren't all that bad - you just pinch some belly fat and inject them slowly. 

Neupogen shots (subcutaneous for my healthcare readers)

The worst part of the drug isn't the injection itself, it's the fact that after about 4 days of doing them your bones feel like they're splitting in half (I'm assuming from the stem cells leaving the marrow into the blood stream). The good news is I only had 6 days of these. Which brings us to Thursday. Thursday was the day I've been dreading since I initially signed up for this treatment - Harvest day.

Rach and I got up bright and early to do my last neupogen injections. The adrenaline must have taken over the anticipation because I didn't even feel nervous. We arrived at Northwestern Hospital and made our way up to Interventional Radiology for vas catheter placement. After a brief waiting period I was brought back into the procedure room where a doctor and a few nurses explained the procedure and prepped the area. I was about to have a tube shoved into my jugular. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled.

They numbed the area and began the process. The entire procedure took about 25 minutes and I felt nothing more than pressure which was a relief. Before I knew it the doctor was telling me I was all set to head over to the blood center for stem cell harvest.

Feeling like Will Ferrell in Old School with a dart in my neck

We arrived at the blood center and met with my nurse Patty. She took us back into our room and I was hooked up to the harvest machine. Here is a short video of it in action:

The concept is fairly simple. It takes your blood from the catheter and processes it through the machine. During the process the stem cells are collected as well as some plasma. The blood is then circulated back into your body.

Time lapse of my stem cells

It's a painless process and I laid there sleeping most of the time. After four hours of being hooked up to the machine I had collected 5.26 million stem cells, an excess of the 2 million that is required to continue on with treatment. I was done, except for the minor detail that I still had a tube in my jugular. Patty cut the stitches around the cathether insertion site and told me to take a deep breath. It burned like hell when she pulled it out and I finally got to actually see what the doctor had put inside of me. What kind of blog would this be without a picture for you all?

The beast

I probably would have passed out if the doctor showed me that before he put it in so I was thankful for his discretion. After waiting about a half hour to make sure the bleeding stopped Rach and I were free to go home for the evening. We grabbed some Chicago dogs and called it a night.

Patty and me

Until next time,

Troy