Stem Cell Extraction

Today was not unlike yesterday -- minus the nausea thankfully.

If you remember over the weekend, I received growth factor shots which caused these cells to multiply like mad. Today, the nurses removed a portion of the excess stem cells and white blood cells that were created over the last few days. These cells will be frozen and given back to me after my chemotherapy.

You need to collect approximently 7.5 million stem cells to go forward with the procedure. Luckily, my bone marrow reacted very positively to the "g-shots". They were able to collect 14.6 million stem cells just during today's extraction. Because of the high response I do not have to take any more growth factor shots, and I only have to do a half-day of stem cell extraction tomorrow.