Stem Cell Collection.
Posted 16 hours ago
I just want to start this off by telling you all how GREAT Travyn is doing!!! He is a different little boy then when he was on Chemo. He is WILD! He is talking, growling, wiggling, squirming, and just being a 6 month old little boy. :) We are so happy with the way things have gone the past few days. We are truly blessed that Travyn is feeling happy and doing so well with his progress after his first cycle of Chemotherapy. Travyn's Blood count droppeed completely to zero and wasn't feeling to good. They started to give him "Neupogen" injections every night for 2 weeks. "Neupogen" is a man-made form of a protein that stimulates the growth of white blood cells in your body. White blood cells help your body fight against infection.Neupogen is used to treat neutropenia, a lack of certain white blood cells caused by cancer, bone marrow transplant, receiving chemotherapy, or by other conditions. Travyn's Blood count jumped through the roof the past week and the Doctor's were so impressed with his progress and they felt very confident it was time for his "Stem Cell Collection" (which is great news) yesterday they put in the collection catheter. They sedated him for about an hour. The line was placed in his right groin femoral vein. They stich it in so he cant kick it out and becuase it is in such a large vein.They told me yesterday morning before they started, that they were positive that they would collect enough Stem Cells in this procedure and that they wouldn't have to come back and they could remove the catheter later that night. So I was really happy to hear that. The catheter was pretty big and it looked very uncomrtable for Tray.They hooked the catheter up to an Apheresis Machine which slowly withdrew his blood from his little body and returned it to him after the Stem Cells were collected. They had to prime the machine first with a unit of blood because Travyns body is way too small. It would have sucked all of his blood out of him before it could return it. so he did get 1 unit of blood yesterday. This machine was so intimidating and was so interesting how it would seperate his blood and knew what was what. WOW!!! It had 2 bags hanging from the top of it. One bag would collect his plasma and the other would collect his Stem Cells. The Stem Cell Collection procedure was 5 1/2 hours long. They gave him calcium the whole time so he didn't run too low on calcium and that helped to prevent nausea. They rolled the Apherisis Machine into his room which was convinent and 2 nice ladys stayed in the room while the machine collected. It was very loud and I couldn't wait until it was over. They finished around 5 and packed up and left. One of the Stem Cell Ladys told me they will go back to the lab and thats where they will count the Stem cells and once they obtained the appropriate amount, the collection will be Complete. Well that wasn't the case, we got his count results back and they didn't quite have enough Stem Cells to complete the procedure. They said they were going to have to come back in the morning and do it all over agian. They didn't know why the machine didn't collect enough. I asked if it had to do with Travyn and his Blood Count and they said No and it had somthing to do with the machine. Well They had to keep the catheter in one night :( but it wasn't that bad. They came this morning set all up again and primed the machine with another unit of blood (so #2 unit of blood this week for tray) they did it all over agian. They ran the machine a little faster today so it only took 3 1/2 hours then they packed up and left. Well we just got the results back and the collected 28.2 million Stem Cells and they only needed 15 million....lol AMAZING!!My boy is such a stud!!! :)They will now divide the stem cells into 6 different bags and Harvest them (Freeze Them) and then after his high doses of chemo then they will thaw out his Stem Cells and replace them in his blood to help replenish his bone marrow. :) STEM CELL COLLECTION COMPLETE!!!!They are now getting ready to remove his catheter.....YIPEEE!!!They are thinking they will start his next cycle of Chemo TOMMORROW!! I know Scary!!! Right???? Other then that things are going GREAT. Tray is doing amazing and for myself, im doing alot better then the past couple of days. Its a rollar coaster ride that i've never been on before in my life. But im managing and getting along just fine. Jayson came back from Cedar last night. Im so glad he is back I missed him so much. He helps me out alot with Tray so im grateful He is back. Grandpa came up today and Im also very grateful he is here. I HAVE THE MOST AMAZING FAMILY EVER!!!
And to everyone else Thank you so much for your love and support!! I love you all so so very much. Your messages give me strength and encourage me not to give up hope!!! I WILL ALWAYS HAVE HOPE FOR MY SON!!! AND I STILL CAN SEE THE DAY WHEN I AM TAKING TRAY HOME TO ST. GEORGE.....CANCER FREE!!!!!!!
pLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR MY BABY TRAY!! YOUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN HEARD AND ARE BEING ANSWERED.....THANK YOU!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!