My Journey

This past weekend, I had my stem cells collected. The process was supposed to be Friday but they said my count was too low (my WBC count had dropped down to 6.4 on Thursday) so they called me to say there was no need to come in and in all likelihood it would have to wait till Monday. This was rather disappointing to hear as I had prepared myself mentally for the 1-2 days they said it might take for the apheresis process and we had arranged help at home and even had a local hotel to stay at thanks to a very generous friend, but because my counts wasn't high enough, they said we would have to wait a few more days. As mentioned, they wanted to see my WBC counts at 10 or more but as it was my 11th day since the start of the 4th cycle of my chemo, it was considered the nadir for my WBC counts. My assumption was that there was a miscalculation for when I should come in for stem cell collection as the 24th was literally the day after my lowest point for counts (nice going Stanford). They ...

I finished up my fourth cycle of RICE this past Thursday. For all intents and purposes, it was also my final round of this chemo treatment before the high dose chemo at Stanford after they remove my stem cells. I would have to say that it was probably the "best" round of chemo out of all the cycles. Best being that I wasn't a total wreck after and I had for the most part a fairly smooth recovery thereafter. I still had some nausea and fatigue but it wasn't as bad as the last cycle. On the last day of my third cycle, I was a total mess and so nauseous that they had to give me an extra dose of anti-nausea medication in my IV line. So, this past round, they switched up my drugs and gave me the anti-psychotic (anti-nausea) medication during chemo and which I also took at night time and I think that really helped me out with the nausea. It's day 5 of recovery now and I feel completely fine. I still ballooned up to 162lbs Thursday night (and you could see all that liqui...

Today I'm halfway through cycle #4 of RICE regimen. I've got another two days before I'm finally done with this form of chemotherapy before I transition over to Stanford. As part of the mobilization process-- the steps a patient has to undergo to prepare themselves for the stem cell collection phase-- they were able to use half of my RICE regimen as part of the process. This was good as it saved me some additional days and steps and more importantly-- not have to take anymore of these chemo drugs when I didn't need to. These drugs are nasty stuff and can have serious side effects. On the last day of cycle #3, I was in bad shape while undergoing treatment. I was extremely nauseous and my head was very foggy. They had to give me an additional dose of anti-nausea medication. It took me 4 days to recover from all the chemo. So, this time around, they are trying to preempt that and gave me some new anti-nausea medication (3 in total) to help counteract the effects. One of th...

I received the calendar of my treatment plan from my Stanford nurse and here's what the next couple months will look like: - August 10-13- RICE regimen cycle #4  - August 13- start daily Zarxio injections  (to boost white blood cell counts (WBC)) - August 21/22- start of stem cell collection at Stanford Apheresis unit. Collection could take 1-4 days - September 4- get admitted into Stanford hospital. Start of high dose chemotherapy - September 10- Transplant day. Remain in hospital until blood counts recover (2-3 weeks from transplant date) - Post-hospital stay- recover at home for next several months until WBC is back within normal range My Stanford doctor said I would be able to use half of my RICE regimen (Rituximab and Etopiside) as part of my mobilization process leading up to my stem cell collection. This was good news as it meant I didn't have to wait even longer before transitioning over to Stanford. Approximately 12 days after the start of cycle #4 is when I'll sta...