Getting Ready to Collect

I am now into the 2-a-day Neupogen shots part of the lead up to stem cell collection.  I never did have many bad side effects from the Cytoxan they gave me last Wednesday night / Thursday morning.  I did go in this past Friday for a check of my blood numbers.  The general blood counts were better than they expected.  My white blood count was 700, whereas the normal range is 2,000 – 8,000.  Any count less than 1,000 is considered neutropenic [a condition of an abnormally low number of neutrophils (white blood cells)].  So I am supposed to stick to a neutropenic diet, which means no raw vegetables (salads), any cheeses with molds, or anything that has been in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours.  The last condition has the greatest effect, as much of our diet consists of long-in-the-tooth leftovers.

The double Neupogen shots do result in some bone pain.  Since Neupogen increases white blood cell generation in the bone marrow, doubling up causes so many white blood cells to be created that they are forced out into the blood stream.  So the bones with blood-generating bone marrow end up causing some pain.  The back, hips, big leg bones, breast bone, and ribs.  So far it has mostly been the back, ribs, & sternum.  The good news is that the pain pills they gave me worked fine last night, and today it has not been very bad.

Tonight I get to take a special shower with hibiclens, a special antimicrobial skin cleanser.  I get to take a second shower with hibiclens tomorrow morning to minimize the chance of an infection when they put in the line for the stem cell collection process.

So things are going well.  In fact, better than we could ever have expected.  More to come after actual collection.