T Minus 2...

Yesterday we had our picc lines inserted at the hospital. The actual surgery took only 20 minutes. Recovery took about an hour. I felt fine until it was time to go back to the apartment. Then the nausea hit. Some ginger ale and a nap made it all better. By evening, when we got our filgrastim shots, the doctor offered a pain shot as well. I gladly accepted it, because I'd heard that sleep was difficult after the picc line. I didn't get much sleep the previous night, so I really needed some solid rest before going into the next phase. I slept very well and dreamed that I walked on my own to the bathroom. 
Today is stem cell harvest day! I just got hooked up to a machine that will separate my stem cells and return the rest of my blood back to me. The process takes up to 5 hours. We cannot leave our comfy recliners during this time, so we were instructed to wear a diaper. I prefer the Brit's word, "nappy". It doesn't sound quite so degrading. I will need to harvest about 63 million stem cells which will be stored and returned to me on Monday. Following the stem cell harvest, we'll have a short break followed by a round of chemo. More chemo tomorrow as well.
  
I've finished stem cell harvest. I produced 636 million stem cells! Everyone in our group had enough to proceed. One man had just over a billion! We left the clinic for lunch and returned for our chemo. We won't get back to the apartment till about 10:00 tonight. This will be a LONG day! Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement.

My happy little stem cells waiting to re-boot my immune system.