Positive thoughts yield positive results!

Positive thoughts yield positive results. I'm sure of it. The last two days have been spent hooked to a Pheresis Machine that saw about 18 liters of my blood running through it, and painstakingly harvested 14.3 million stem cells from my bone marrow...that will hopefully save my life! Truly an amazing procedure and an answer to my prayers.
Frankly, other than having to endure painful Growth Factor Injections each day for 5 days, the "harvesting" procedure was quite decadent. The hormone injections helped my bone marrow produce an abundance of stem cells which then spilled out into my blood stream allowing for easy retrieval through a newly acquired summer accessory... my central line. I literally laid in bed for 2 days, with Del and Sandy by my side, hooked up to this fascinating machine - which did a lot of the work. The only thing missing was bon bons! I guess Del forgot to bring them...do I need to find another member of the entourage?? The end result was plenty of stem cells and I could not be happier right now...or as Fr. Woods always says..."couldn't be better"!

You might also notice that my hair is a bit shorter now.Yup...sister Kate got to me with her scissors! They decided that I needed to go shorter in the interim because it was getting to be too much caring for the long hair and my central line! They were right. So the other night, while my brother-in-law Mike stood by a little too eagerly with his #3 blade in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other, Kate expertly trimmed about 6 inches from my hair. Mike will have to wait another week to use his buzzer.

 I'm sure that there are some of you out there, who as you are reading this, find it very hard to believe that I am fighting a potentially fatal disease for which there is no known cause, nor cure. (Believe me..I prefer to be in denial as well!) I think the expectation is that one would look and feel sick enough to be hospitalized. The deceiving thing about this disease is that although I am sick on the inside (if only my kidneys could talk!!), I don't look that sick on the outside. OK...except for that edema from head to toe, (which can be hidden with bigger clothes!) I look as I always have. The first 8 weeks of my treatment have really gone quite well and I have been pleased not only the with the way my mind and body has tolerated all of the drugs that have been infused, injected and inhaled along the way (considering I never took anything stronger than Advil my whole life!!), but more importantly...with the results. Next week the mask will come off as I begin to show the true colors of my treatment.

More often than not, with this type of disease, (which has similarities to lots of types of cancer), although still critical in the sense of diagnosis, the treatment is done on an outpatient basis. Lots of reasons for this, but primarily because hospitals have found that over the long term treatment process (chemotherapy and other drug therapies) that patients fare much better if they are allowed to go home when not hooked up to machines, rather than stay in a hospital setting. Over the last 20 years, BU Medical Center has tried many approaches to treating various types of cancer and Amyloidosis. They have found that "outpatient" aspects yield a faster and stronger recovery. In order to be in this program, they currently require patients  1) to stay within 4 miles of the hospital (due to the toxicity of the treatment, the chance of admission is high at certain times during this treatment, as well as the fact that you have to come to the hospital almost everyday for chemotherapy, labs, monitoring, or harvesting) and 2) they require at least one other person to be by your side 24/7 for the duration of the "treatment" (as you know, I opted for an entourage just to be on the safe side). This person will keep track of  meds (which can change daily), vitals, make sure that you get plenty of rest (I am sleeping a lot!)and eating (or trying to anyway) the right foods. They are in many ways a buffer between my compromised immune system and the outside world. The "team" of doctors and nurses at the hospital is involved every step of the way as well.


With that being said...I am incredibly blessed to have the most wonderful people looking out for me...for all of the support and prayers from all of you, and for my God who is providing me the strength and courage to BE on this adventure.  I am so thankful for everyday.
Love to all,
Cheryl