PERSONAL NOTES

It is a dreary Sunday in Houston, not raining but just dreary. I have been asked to share my personal thoughts as I go through this process. I will share both technical and personal notes. I appreciate your interest and welcome you to my website. A.G. (our oldest son) has designed the website for me. I asked him for a simple website and he went beyond that and made one that is very personal and one I am delighted to share with you.

I am self-injecting the Neupogen and was told upfront that they would create discomfort and that has proven to be true. Neupogen is a hematopoietic agent used to stimulate production of white blood cells by my bone marrow. It makes me ache, much like when you have the flu. It is all in preparation for the collection that will begin tomorrow morning. We are to be at the hospital by 7:00 for blood/specimen collection, at 7:30 we will go to the Infusion Therapy Clinic and have the subclavian catheter installed and immediately will start the Stem Cell Collection. This will take about four hours per day and probably take most of the week. Everything from here on depends on how many stem cells are collected. There is a certain number that it and above are considered a great collection. There is a certain number that it and below means the collection has not produced what is needed and the transplant will not go on and then we are back at square one. Then there is a gray area where the number of cells collected falls in-between the numbers listed above. Then decisions will have to be made by my doctors, Arthur and me. It will take longer and be more difficult for the Stem Cell Transplant (SCT). We are hoping my stem cells are just waiting to be collected in huge numbers and the first scenario will take place.

When we visited this area, it looked very interesting and a little like something from a futuristic film. It is amazing what the medical community can do for cancer patients and M. D. Anderson is the best.