Harvest Time

Red leaves. Fall, on its way. We spotted our first brightly colored leaves the last day of August while we were still in Holland, and through our early travels this month we have seen the green John Deere corn pickers busy in the fields. It’s the beginning of harvest time for our Midwestern farmers, and it was time for the harvest of Bob’s stem cells (an outpatient procedure).

Bob reported to the Cancer Care Center at Barnes/Jewish Hospital September 6-8 for shots that would stimulate his bone marrow to make more white cells and stem cells. I envisioned the Keebler elves busy at their machines cranking the gears at a rapid rate making a gracious plenty of cells and all of them piling up as high as Jack’s beanstalk ready to be released. On Monday the 9th, Bob had a port put in under his collarbone for use during the harvesting and transplant procedures (the port is for ease in administering intravenous medications - no needle sticks), received the shot to stimulate the making of stem cells, and had a shot to mobilize those stem cells. It sounds short and sweet but in reality took most of the day. Tuesday, the harvest began.

Bob reported at 8:00 a.m. to the apheresis center. He sat in a recliner and was hooked up through his port to a machine that spins out and collects the stem cells and then gives back the other blood components. Bob was at the center for about six hours hoping that at least 2.5 million stem cells were being collected - that’s how much it takes for a transplant. If 5 million could be collected, the extra could be stored for another transplant, if needed. We were told that this process could take anywhere from one to five days and that with Bob‘s age it might take the longer rather than shorter time.

 The bag you see at the top right with the  red liquid contains his stem cells!

Well, Halleluiah, Bob was an over-achiever! Turns out those elves had worked overtime. He got a phone call around 5:00 p.m. that very evening and was told that more than 14 billion cells had been collected, and he could go home. We packed and left the next day. It was good to be back in our own bed. Time to rest, gather our resolve, and prepare.