The Stem Cell Harvesting Went Well!!

    • Anonymous
      October 2, 2009 at 5:01 am

      so yesterday, i had to be at the hospital early, get labs done, then head over to the surgical area where they placed a picc line in my neck. it wasn’t pleasant, but also not really painful. i’d say the creepy factor was worse than the pain factor 😉 then, with three plugs hanging out of my neck, i walked over to the harvesting center– very sci-fi… it was an easy experience where they hook up my plugs to the lines of the apheresis machine and the harvesting began. completely painless. i was lucky, i had many stem cells flowing through my blood so the harvest was fast– about 4 hours, and they obtained 5.5 million of them! they only needed 2 million so the rest of them get stored at northwestern for 5 or 10 years (can’t remember), in case you should ever need them. to give you an idea, some people need to come back for 3 or 4 days to gather a sufficient amount of stem cells. so i was lucky

      over the next couple of weeks, they will process my stem cells. then, on october 20th, i’ll be admitted into the hospital for the 4 days of chemo and reinfusion of stem cells.

      here are a few cell phone pictures of the harvesting… note, the stem cells are red, they look like light blood.

      [IMG]http://www.alicedicroce.com/Alicesblog/Photo1.jpg[/IMG]

      [IMG]http://www.alicedicroce.com/Alicesblog/Photo2.jpg[/IMG]

      [IMG]http://www.alicedicroce.com/Alicesblog/Photo4.jpg[/IMG]

      [IMG]http://www.alicedicroce.com/Alicesblog/Photo6.jpg[/IMG]

    • Anonymous
      October 2, 2009 at 10:01 am

      I cut and pasted this to my sister…she asked about you. :p

      Stacey

    • Anonymous
      October 2, 2009 at 10:21 am

      That would be a FANTASTIC Halloween costume! (sorry, weird sense of humor today)

      I’m glad it went well & didn’t hurt.

      Kelly

    • Anonymous
      October 2, 2009 at 6:37 pm

      Good luck.

      I so-o-o-o-o much hope that this protocol works for you.

      I totally admire your strength and courage all across the board.

    • KatyK
      October 3, 2009 at 2:57 am

      Hi Alice,
      Glad you had an abundance of stem cells. You also have an abundance of inner strength that is giving us all hope, courage and inspiration!

    • Anonymous
      October 3, 2009 at 5:18 am

      Hi Alice, Im following your progress as this treatment is new to me..good luck .

    • Anonymous
      October 3, 2009 at 10:32 am

      Hi Alice,

      I can finally connect a face with your name!! You are beautiful, however,
      don’t they have better looking gowns? Keep the faith, what an inspiration!

      ms. judy

    • Anonymous
      October 3, 2009 at 11:57 am

      thank you!

    • Anonymous
      October 3, 2009 at 10:22 pm

      Thanks for the pictures. You and Sophie are lovely. It does look a bit like a Sci-Fi set there. We’re still praying for you.
      Laurel

    • Anonymous
      October 3, 2009 at 11:34 pm

      Truly complicated.
      I’m grateful that it’s working well so far.
      I’m EXPECTING it to truly work for the long term!
      Positive attitude is a major portion of this battle, and you will win!

    • Anonymous
      October 4, 2009 at 10:50 pm

      Alice,
      I am new to this forum because I just got diagnosed with cidp. Can you tell me about you situation (if you feel like it)?

    • Anonymous
      October 4, 2009 at 11:15 pm

      I just saw where you have a website. I went to it to get your information. I hope your treatment is a great success.

    • Anonymous
      October 5, 2009 at 6:23 am

      branbec,

      i hope you got all the info you need. there are also some recent posts with lots of details– check: cytoxan is amazing

      anyway, welcome to the forum, although i am sorry you have to be here in the 1st place.

      best,
      alice

    • Anonymous
      October 6, 2009 at 12:33 am

      I hope you are doing better. I am going to dr tomorrow to change med.I was on Imuran and Pred. and the Imuran made me sick and elevated my liver enzymes. I started at 80 pred. I have done IVIG and Plasma Pharesis. I started at 80mg on pred. (they thought I had gb) when my pred was down to 2.5 mg I developed pneumonia. Then had a major relapse. So then they put me back on 60 mg pred. They are trying to get the pred down because I have had alot of side effects but they haven’t found what I can take in its place. They sent me in July to The Cleveland Clinic for alot of tests but they didn’t come up with anything that my drs here hadn’t already talked about.

      Will keep you in my prayers.

    • Anonymous
      October 8, 2009 at 6:00 pm

      Holy Cow Alice,

      Hang Tough:) 🙂

    • Anonymous
      October 9, 2009 at 7:28 am

      very cool Alice – which one of your doctors are you calling “Bones”? (from Star Trek… the original one) 😀 I just want to thank you for taking the time and energy to make your journey public. I can’t imagine where you find the energy to think of taking pictures during your process… you are an amazing woman!

      Julie

      P.S. I think Calvin Coolidge was talking about you when he said the below quote