Stem Cell Collection- Day One

Today was day one of the stem cell collection process. It wasn't anything like I expecting. We went in at 7:00 this morning so he could get another shot and some blood work done to check his platelets. In one day they had went up from 63 to 70, but his white blood count wasn't has high as they were hoping. The shots he has been getting since Friday were suppose to boost the growth of his white blood cells. It did, just not as much as it was suppose to. They got him all hooked up to the fancy machine and away it went pulling blood and spinning it and separating it. The nurse showed me how it all worked and what each tube and bag was for. Oh my gosh, it was so amazing! They told us that when they do the collecting that it would deplete his platelets and since they were pretty low to start with they checked them after we were done. We had to wait about 20 minutes and the told us they had only dropped to 53, anything below 15 would meant the he would need a transfusion. His collection number today was 2.6 and they are wanting the number to be somewhere in the 10-15 range when we are finished. They said given all his numbers, it was a pretty good start. If he keeps getting numbers like this we will be going in everyday until Friday. Keep your fingers crossed his numbers stay right around there....or higher.