Stem Cell Harvest

Pre – Harvest

Last week I was preparing for the harvest of my stem cells which happened on Tuesday this week. I was instructed to inject Lenograstim for 4 days. One injection into each arm (4 vials of 263 micrograms.2 vials per arm). My daughter, Terri and my Dad took on this task as it was a bit awkward for me to inject correctly into my upper arm so many thanks to them as I know they weren’t keen on doing it.

I had been warned by my consultants to expect a “little” bone pain. I accept that everyone is different in the way they react to some medications but what a bloody understatement that was. The first couple of days weren’t too bad and the pain was ok but by the third day the pain was unbearable. I felt it in my chest but particularly in my lower back, pelvis and legs. It didn’t come on immediately, but over a few hours. It became so bad that by the evening the pain had become so bad that Nicola, my wife, rang the 111 helpline for advice and they said they were sending an ambulance.  I had taken some morphine to dull the pain but it was barley touching it. After taking my night time medication of morphine and Amitriptyline the pain had begun to ease so we called and cancelled the ambulance. They’d been really busy anyway and after an hour and a half still hadn’t arrived so we knew they were busy and that I wouldn’t/shouldn’t use them.

We rang the cancer nurse the following day and they instructed taking morphine every two hours or hour as required to dull the pain and to continue to take the last injection. What a hell of a weekend and one I wouldn’t wish on anyone unless of course your one of the lucky ones that medication doesn’t really affect.

The Harvest

Thankfully it was all worthwhile as the pre harvest blood checks showed a stem cell count of 96 in my blood, the average count for someone who has had chemo is usually about 30 – 40 I was told. A lady also in for harvest had suffered similar pain issues to me and only had a count of 10 which meant a two day harvest in store. I was lucky because they managed to get all mine in the day rather than over two days which had been anticipated.

The harvest itself was not painful at all. The hardest part was lying still. You are not allowed to move on your own, in my case for over four hours. Little itches on the nose or sweat on the brow becomes a nightmare. Thankfully Nicola took care of that. The nurses and consultant were fantastic and made life a lot easier. They were attentive and chatty which made the time go over great. There is a picture of the machine I was attached to below. One of two machines named Ant and Dec. Fantastic pieces of kit which take your blood from you, spin it in a centrifuge and then pass it back to you minus the required stem cells. They collected 200ml of cells from me which should be more than enough for two transplants and again much more than they expected so the pain of the injections had been worthwhile.  It is amazing what they can do now. Even though my cancer won’t be cured this time around they should have enough cells for a future transplant when it’s required. They will be able to pull my cells from the freezer and crack on. Who knows by the time it comes back things may have advanced so much they can treat me with lasers, all star trek like. Who knows?

Incidentally anyone planning to donate stem cells will go through these same procedures and although I mentioned the pain, it was only for four days of my life and more than worth it so I would encourage people to consider it. Stem cell donors are required as much as blood donors these days. From what I’ve read people are put off by the lack of information available about what actually happens. Yes it’s an inconvenience and it takes longer than giving blood which you can do in your lunch hour but I hope I haven’t put anyone off considering it.