I'm lying is a hospital bed, IV lines in both arms while a machine to my right takes blood from my body; removes stem cells; and returns the red, life sustaining fluid to me. As the machine whirrs away, a nurse is asking questions and filling out a form. As I reply "NO" to inquiries such as "Do you have any pain?", "Do you have any nausea or vomiting?", "Are you constipated?", "Are you fatigued?" she looks up from the paperwork and says, "Why are you here?".
I am "here" because, living in a "Fallen" world, I''m experiencing cancer. A journey I did not expect while planning my life; but a journey whose steps are directed by my God. Because God is leading me through this dark valley and knows the outcome of this trip, I have chosen to put my complete faith in Him. Even though I don't know or understand all the twists and turns of this safari, Gods knows and I trust Him...with my life. Since the beginning of this adventure, I have witnessed God at work. At His direction, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff have sprung into action utilizing their skills, training, and intellect to diagnose and implement treatment in an extremely timely manner. And because of the prayers of family, friends, churches, and strangers literally around the world, I have been able to respond to my treatments in an atypical manner.
For reasons known only fully to Him, God has blessed me with exceptional responses to treatment protocols since the beginning. My early regimen of Velcade and Revlimid did not result in the usual physical responses of the human body to these chemo drugs. Nausea and vomiting did not make an appearance. In fact, these two unpleasant side effects have yet to rear their ugly heads, praise the LORD! Neuropathy has manifested itself as a result of the Velcade, but not to the extent of being debilitating and currently is manageable using Gabapentin. The Revlimid caused some pretty painful headaches and was replaced with Cytoxin which caused no unwelcome side effects.
My lack of side effects to treatment caused me to question the effectiveness of the preliminary protocol for the harvesting of my stem cells. I had to inject myself with 600 mcg. of Neupogen twice a day beginnng Thursday, May 31 and ending Monday, June 4. That's four shots per day plus two per day (morning and night) of Lovenox which replaces the Coumadin. The Neupogen is designed to stimulate my bone marrow to produce sufficient number of stem cells prior to harvesting. I was told to expect the Neupogen to possibly cause nausea and vomiting, extreme fatigue, and bone pain. When I didn't experience any of these downsides to the drug, I began to question whether the Neupogen was working. But when I remembered that I and many others were praying that side effects would not be a problem, I knew that God was listening and responding to everyone's prayer. Thank you, LORD!!
Harvest day was Monday. We arrived at the Karmonos Cancer Center early, 7:15 a.m., and had blood work drawn. We had to wait a little over two hours, for tests to be run that would determine if the Neupogen had done its work. We finally received word that results showed I had enough stem cells floating around so I could be hooked up to the machine which would capture these little guys. Getting two IV lines into my arms and connected to the pheresis machine took a bit of time. But at 11:30 the procedure was underway.
The process required that I keep both arms extended at my sides, so at lunch time (the hospital supplied a sack lunch), Greg had to feed me. When my nose itched, Greg had to help me scratch. He said he was drawing the line at picking my nose, however. (He said, "You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. But you can't pick your friend's nose.") Finally, the procedure was completed at about 3:15 p.m. I was untethered from the machine. The nurse said that a determination would be made by the lab whether enough stem cells had been harvested. If not enough were obtained, we would have to return on Tuesday and undergo this process again although I wouldn't have to undergo the preliminary blood test. I could go on the machine immediately upon arrival. The lab would call me before 5:30 p.m.
We returned to Colleen's house to await the call. At 5:10 the lab phoned. They threw out numbers I didn't understand, but Praise God!, these were numbers we wanted to hear. The lab tech said that the number needed had to fall within a range between 2 and 5. My number was 8.3!! More than enough for two transplants!!! Prayers had be answered. Once again God had blessed me. We return to Karmonos next week where my frozen stem cells will be reintroduced into my body after a treatment of chemo kills all my white blood cells. Then the stem cells, by God's great design, will grow into new white blood cells and my immune system will be reborn and, the LORD willing, the cancer will be in remission. I look forward to this future trusting God and His plans.
"I know who holds the future,
And I know who holds my hand;
With God things don't just happen --
Everything by Him is planned." A. Smith
 |
| Left arm is the return line. Right arm (covered) is the output line. Couldn't move from this position from 11:30 to 3:15. Praise the LORD enough stem cells were harvested the first time! |
No comments:
Post a Comment