The Road Set Before Me

Mom, Dad, and I were all just talking about how long it feels like it's been since Mom last had an infusion! Shockingly, it’s actually only one week later than she normally would have had it, but it feels like a long time since her last one. I guess the stem cell retrieval process felt like it took a long time, but in reality it was only two days!  Mom has been recovering well from the retrieval. She was a little tired for a bit afterwards, and she had to be careful with her neck where they had inserted the retrieval catheter, but thankfully that has healed very well! The wound and bruising are actually almost completely gone. Today Mom had her immunotherapy infusion. Dad went with her to this appointment again, which was great! At this point, I think his favourite part of these appointments is getting a new book to read from the little book-sharing library in the hospital waiting room! That was a 10/10 addition to the waiting room.  The infusion went well and was (thankfully)...

Well, the stem cell retrieval is over! The whole process took two days in total because they didn’t collect as many stem cells on the first day as they had hoped.  The retrieval setup.  Starting Sunday, Mom (and Dad) went to a clinic daily for a nurse to give her shots to stimulate her body to produce more stem cells. Then yesterday was retrieval day! Mom and Dad arrived at the hospital at 8 am, and they right away prepped Mom for the catheter insertion in her neck at 9 am. By 11 am they had her completely hooked up to the retrieval machine and the process of retrieving the stem cells began. All went well with the retrieval. Mom mostly slept or rested during the whole process.  On Thursday, they were only able to collect 1.3M stem cells, so this meant that Mom would have to stay the night and they would try to collect the remaining amount needed the following day. After a little while of shuffling around from bed to bed, they finally found a bed for her to stay in for the...

Hello everyone. It's Dawn writing, but of course the girls will edit as well. In recent years even just one outing a week can feel like a lot, but getting out and about is good for me to do. Last week felt quite busy for me.  I was able to attend church on Sunday, which was lovely. My week feels much longer without worshiping the Lord with our church family.  On Monday, I went for some extensive lab work in preparation for the stem cell retrieval. Canada Health requires that a person be tested for a myriad, (38, actually!), of different infectious diseases prior to a blood retrieval. This is both for information purposes and for potential infectious disease protection for those working on the blood. 12 vials were taken for testing. One test didn't come back, so I have to get that retested. Another test showed that my ferritin is too low, and an iron infusion is scheduled for this week as well.  After the labwork on Monday, Andrew came with me to meet with our transplant c...