Stem Cell Retrieval

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 night. The shuffling happened because she technically was never admitted to the hospital

because her procedure was part of the outpatient clinic, but she can’t leave the hospital with her catheter in. 


Because they didn’t collect enough stem cells on the first day, there was a possibility that Mom would be given a drug that would make her body create even more stem cells than the shots she had already taken. This shot is expensive though (about $9,000!), so she would only be given it if they collected under 1.25M stem cells. Since they were able to collect 1.3M she was not given this drug. 


On Friday morning, they began the collection process earlier in the day, and we were hopeful that with the additional time, they would collect more stem cells than the day before. This process was all the same as the day before and it went well. One side effect Mom had today was tingling in and around her mouth. We had been warned that this was a possible side effect that could happen due to her level of calcium dropping in her blood. They slowed down the retrieval machine and gave Mom Tums every hour to help boost her calcium levels. 


They finished up the retrieval this afternoon and Mom had her catheter removed from her neck. Thankfully, this removal could be done in her room and she didn’t have to go to a different clinic to have it removed. In total, they collected 2.4M stem cells! The goal was to collect 2.5M, but anything over 2M was considered a “successful collection”. 


Thank you for all of your continual prayers both before and during this process. God has been good, and we are so thankful that the collection process went as well as it did. 


Prayer Requests:

  1. Praise God for the stem cell retrieval being a success!

  2. Pray that Mom will be able to rest and gain strength since this process is quite strenuous on her body. 


“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:13-16






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