Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Still in the Stem Cell Game

My stubborn stem cells are slowly but surely leaving the comfort of my bone marrow. I think they heard a rumor that they'd be put on ice and, like me, don't like the notion of being cold and out of commission.

The good news is that the doctors have lowered the collection bar from an optimum of 5 million to a minimum of 2 million. The more stem cells the better for a quick and easy engrafting after the transplant, but 2 million can get the job done.

I'm now up to 1.32 million and can collect for three more days. (The mobilizing drug is limited to a six-day collection time frame.) I harvested .28 million on Monday and took just a slight dip to .22 million on Tuesday. If I (with the help of AMD 3100 and Neupogen) can continue to coax the stem cells out at this rate, we'll have that 2 million in the bank by Saturday.

(PS My laptop will be in the shop for several more days, so I'm posting this from the City of Hope.)

2 comments:

Piper Robert said...
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Mrs. Duck said...

Aw, Piper Robert, come on and entertain us with that spanking story!!

Mrs. Duck