Crossing the Street

Before Don’s body is subjected to the strong drugs of the stem cell transplant, the doctors want to know about his over-all physical condition. “Quantification” is the name of the game. To put numbers on Don’s physicality, yesterday he took tests, lots of physical tests; Pulmonary function, Echo cardiogram, EKG, a chest X-ray, and blood work. To find out his mental state and the nature of his support system we met with a Social Worker, then we met with the Transplant Coordinator to get more details of the up-coming procedures.

At the end of the day, his grade card was full of great numbers. 

Our favorite moment of the day was watching the Echo cardiogram screen in the darkened room as Don lay on a cot and the technician smeared cool jelly on Don’s chest with the sonar probe. The probe sends sound waves toward Don’s heart that are translated to shadowy pulsing shapes on the screen. We watched the chambers of his heart, the muscle walls, and the valves, all busily squeezing, relaxing, flapping, and beat, beat, beating. So much activity! We marveled at a machine that operates 24-7, from before we are born, until the day we die, perhaps 80 or 90 years, with no maintenance, aside from giving it regular food and exercise. The technician told us a heart cycles 4 liters of blood through it every minute. WOW! As a man who dealt with machines all of his life, Don was in awe of the one inside his chest. Sami’s take on the deal is that it is no wonder rhythm and music are so important to us, because at our very core we have a rhythm machine. When the technician turned up the audio of the sonar waves moving over Don’s heart they sounded like underwater rap music.

These tests are considered phase one of the stem cell transplant. Phase two is Mobilization and Collection of the stem cells, all out-patient stuff. That begins the day after tomorrow, Saturday, when Don gets his first shot of the mobilization drug, Neupogen. This part of the process takes about a week. We'll report on the details as they happen.