Mission Impossible? No! Mission COMPLETE!!!

Not for the squeamish.

Shots are done!!!!

I never thought I'd say this, thank you Jason, for stabbing me every morning, twice, and reminding me to breathe.

This morning I had my blood drawn to test for my stem cell count as well as my CBC, calcium, potassium...etc.  If I'm low on anything, they will give me something to boost it.  They estimated 40 million, I only need 2 million for transplant.

We ate some breakfast, thank you Dunkin Donuts.  Then we lounged around until about 10:30, then went back to the blood center for the long stay today.

The nurse said she expected me to finish today, which means this lovely new piece of jewelry gets to come out before heading back to the hotel!

This vas catheter had to be put in by a surgeon, under local anesthetic, in an operating room.  

They took X-rays, and did ultrasounds to find the right spot.  Then they gave a few shots to numb the area.  They then made a small incision and inserted the catheter to my heart.  This movement was very forceful and caused some heart flutters which felt really strange.  Once they got it in place, they secured it with two stitches on my neck and covered it all up.

Next, I got hooked up to my friend for the day.

My blood was literally pulled from body, pushed through this machine, and sorted out.  The plasma and stem cells were stored for transplant and the red blood cells were then warmed back up and given back to me.  

At the end of the very long day, I collected 19 million stem cells!  More than enough to help me heal after the chemo for transplant.

All of those machines for little me. :)

This mission started with chemo last Monday, and ended with Harvest today.  Lots of pain inbetween.  Glad to be done with this leg of the journey.  

Next stop, HOME TO BOYS!!!