I had my first stem cell collection today – an auspicious day to start given the weather. I drove down to Sloan Kettering this morning through the heart of the storm, arriving a few minutes to nine, almost an hour late.
Now the good news, really good news, is that I don’t have to go back for further collections. I got a call from Kelly – one of the RN’s running the program – late in the afternoon. The total cell collection goal is 5 million, and they had collected 13.5 million cells. It sometimes takes up to five collection sessions to reach the 5 million goal, but I am done after one. My appointments for Sunday and Monday are both scratched and it means I also don’t have to worry about going to Sloan for possible collection appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday.
So suddenly my trips to Sloan next week go from a possible four days, down to Monday afternoon/evening, and Thursday morning. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings are freed up for me to catch up on business.
The actual collection process is pretty interesting. IV’s are put into both arms – the right arm is for outflow of blood into a machine with a centrifuge called (I think) a Kobe spectra, and the left arm is the inflow arm. After the blood gets centrifuged and the cells separated, back it goes into your body via the left arm. You have to be very careful about not moving the right arm, but the inflow arm you can use, as long as you don’t overdue it. You also can’t get up while the session is underway – you are lying in bed. When I asked about trips to the bathroom, the nurses said, “use the bottle”, which was a big motivator to head to the bathroom before getting hooked up.
The centrifuge machine isn’t very big and is right next to the bed. And of course it has a digital readout telling you everything you need to know. My session took exactly three hours, to the minute.
Kelly let me have a good look at the machine after I was done. The actual centrifuge is housed in at the bottom, in a kind of closet or drawer. It isn’t very big – looks like a large pot with an arrangement at the top, to allow for the tubes that hold the blood.
Kelly also told me the machine was invented in the 60’s by a scientist (Kobe?) whose daughter had leukemia, resulting in her body producing too many white blood cells. So here’s an example of a technology innovation for one situation, which also solved a problem for other needs.
I headed out of Sloan a little after one o’clock. The Sun was shining and the streets were clear, although wet. The drive home was under an hour, quite a change from the trip in.
So an excellent result, with up to four collection sessions eliminated. And as a bonus, Dr. Reich, the hematology Dr., had come in during the session to tell me she’d just read my bone marrow done by Dr. K. on Wednesday, and it was completely clear of mantle cell and CLL. This was expected, but still good to hear.
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