Transplant - The Finale

Hi again, time to continue with this story.
Basically, all we had to do now was to wait. Wait for the new cells to take to my body, settle in my bone marrow and start working. I had started Immuno-suppressants, which were to stop my own immune system from rejecting the new cells and vice versa. There were a load of other medications too, to stop me from getting ill, as my immune system was flat, and it would be a while before the new cells would start making neutraphils (to fight infection).
I did get ill at times though, including extremely high temperatures, sometimes I even had whats called "Rigors" (A rigor is an episode of shaking or exaggerated shivering which can occur with a high fever. It is an extreme reflex response which occurs for a variety of reasons. It should not be ignored, as it is often a marker for significant and sometimes serious infections). The rigors were nasty, I couldn't stop myself from shaking violently from head to toe, which made me feel pretty out of control and uncomfortable.
I was having blood transfusions regularly, and was having all sorts of scans, CT scans, Ultrasound scans of different organs to check for infection because of the temperatures. They did eventually find the problem and things settled down. By now my apetite had completely gone, and I was relying on my feeding tube to provide my nutrition.
Usually, people get neutraphils by around Day +28, and my 16th birthday fell on Day +27. I was hoping that I might have a neutraphil for a special birthday present. That didn't happen. In fact, I didn't even have half a neutraphil by Day +50! This was a concern, not only for me and my family, but for the doctors too. It was starting to look like a second transplant was pretty imminent. Luckily Rachel Hough, my doctor, and a leading expert in cord cell transplants, decided to speak to the man that trained her. She spoke to John Wagner, the man who instigated the first ever cord cell transplant over in America. They decided that they should persist with my current cells, stopped one of my drugs, and doubled a drug called GCSF (which stimulates the body and the new cells into producing white blood cells).
Day +52 - guess how many neutraphils? ... 1.94! Dr Wagner and Dr Hough had managed to kick my lazy-arse cells into shape! From then on my cells gradually increased, and I started to get visitors and was starting to feel better. After about 55 days of being confined to my room, I was allowed out to explore the ward.
I did spike temperatures again, but this time the doctors couldn't find the cause. Eventually, after scanning and investigating every possibility, they decided to remove my hickman line. Its very common for the lines to get infected, so it had to go. After 3 years of loyal service, on Day +60, they took him away (after a struggle to separate him from my veins). But there is some good news. They let me keep some of it as a souvenir!


Dr John E. Wagner, me (with newly inserted PICC line in my arm)
and Dr Rachel Hough. I have so much to thank these two for.



Day +73 Dr John Wagner was visiting the UK to give lectures and said that he really wanted to meet me. So after having a new PICC line inserted into my arm to replace the old faithful hickman, John came to the ward and visited me. I got to meet the man who helped save my transplant, and he had done so all the way over in America. It was a real honour to meet him.
Day +74 I FINALLY CAME HOME! It felt so great to be home after 12 weeks of being in for transplant (if you include the conditioning and stuff)

My next post will be about life at home and what happens next (we're pretty much up to date now)

thanks guys

Andrew

:)

Transplant - Day 0

Hi Guys!!
Before I start this post I just want to talk about the new features on my blog. The first feature is a globe at the side of the page showing where the viewers of my blog are located, its quite interesting. The slight problem is that it will start counting from today, not from the start of my blog. I have actually had over 500 views now, ranging from the UK to America and Australia (hello to my overseas readers).
The next new feature is a share option at the bottom of each post. This will allow you to share links to posts you like through Twitter, Facebook, E-mail, Blogger and Google Buzz. So please dont forget to keep spreading the word.
Time for me to explain what "Day 0" is - Day 0 is transplant day, the day where I recieve my new cells. The day after will be called Day +1, the day after that will be +2 and so on. I just thought I'd explain that so you have a rough idea of the timescale in this post.
Day 0 came and the cells were in the hospital, after travelling from America and The Czech Republic. I would be having 2 bags of cells from the Czech umbilical cords, as they were stored differently from the Americans, who only had 1 bag. The procedure itself was fairly easy for me, but the nurses performing it had to be very careful. The cells were stored in liquid nitrogen ( I think, it was like -140 degrees) to prevent them from dying/ being damaged. The nurses had to grab the cells with thermal gloves and then place them into a bath type container which would defrost them.
Once defrosted the cells were ready to go. Each bag was put up individually and was allowed to drip into me through my line (as mentioned in earlier posts) just like a blood transfusion really! Each bag lasted about 20 minutes, and the nurses performed regular observations to make sure my sexy self wasnt having any dodgy reactions (as I have a record for that sorta thing now!). The whole transplant took about an hour, no reactions, and the most dramatic thing about the whole thing was that I managed to thrash my dad at FIFA whilst the transplant was happening (playing as none other than the Czech Republic).


Me, Laura and Katie - The nurses that performed my transplant.

 You can see a tube running along my face in the picture, this is a feeding tube so that I was still fed even when I was too ill to eat myself.
Also, just thought I might add this bit, for a few days after the transplant I smelled of sweetcorn, although I personally couldnt smell it. There is a good reason for this. The cells were stored with a preservative, which is excreted through the pores as sweat. So, basically, my b.o. was sweetcorn-ish for a few days.
The next few days were very rough: I felt tired, sick, my stomach hurt, I was peeing out blood at one point and thats all I can really remember as I was sleeping for most of it.

I'm gunna leave it there for now, as there is still quite a lot to say. I dont exactly wanna blab it all out now and ruin the suspense do I?

cheers guys
Andy
:)