Erika sleeping during her stem cell harvest
Autologous Stem Cell Harvest
Discharged – 24th Nov 17
Stem cells are immature cells that make all of the blood cells in your body. An autologous stem cell harvest is the procedure of taking the blood out and spinning it to extract stem cells. Hemapheresis refers to the selective removal of certain component(s) of the blood via a machine designed specifically for this purpose. The stem cells collected are stored until her bone marrow rescues which were scheduled for after her surgery.
As Erika’s central line was too soft to cope with the volume and flow rate needed for this procedure a VAS CATH (vascular catheter) was inserted into a vein in Erika’s neck under general anaesthetic. It was bulky and looked to be so annoying but she got used to it quite quickly and was dancing in her cot to Ed Sheeran the next morning, much to our surprise.
Erika with vas cath in her neck
The actual harvest procedure takes 3-4 hours, without stoppages, and while she was hooked up to the machine, she had to keep very still, so she was given a light sedative and slept for almost all of it on the first day. She woke on the second day but she was still very groggy and we were able to keep her lying down and quite still watching You Tube for the rest of that day’s hook up.
Erika’s heart rate was slowing on day one, and this was a sign that they look for which indicates calcium levels were dropping. Even though she had calcium infusion going the whole procedure time, they still dropped and we still had to stop and wait until her calcium levels came back up before proceeding. We slowed down the process after that so her calcium remained stable. The second day was much slower as we didn’t want her calcium to drop again. We knew what speed she could tolerate.
We got enough stem cells that would be needed in the first 2 days, enough for 2 bone marrow rescues (a third day is sometimes required). The Vascath was removed from the vein with a morphine shot. Much to my shock, they just pulled it out and held pressure on the area for five minutes or so. We were able to go home at the end of that day. She was quite high for a while after the morphone and she drank her water bottle dry, which was a lot of water for her but she threw up everywhere once she was back home.
A couple of unrelated happenings occured during this time which cheered us up a bit.
While we were still in hospital, Billy Slater from the Queensland Cowboys came to our ward to see a teenage boy who was suffering with cancer. Just one of the amazing things the Starlight Foundation organizes. The ward was all abuzz with some nurses acting like groupies. We saw him arrive but didn’t think we should run up to him as he was not there to see everyone. My Mum just happened to be getting in the lift to come back up after being out for lunch. Actually, she chased him into the lift. “You’re Billy Slater aren’t you” she said. Billy offered her a selfie and of course Mum was quite chuffed. He was such a gentleman. Mum messaged the photo to me immediately. Nicole and I were amazed but not shocked really. My Mum has the ability to talk to just about anyone.
Billy Slater and my Mum
Nicole and Jason are cricket fanatics and I had secretly organized Nicole and Jason to have a day out at the cricket and have the ‘on field’ experience at tea, courtesy of Cricket Australia. It was the day after Erika was discharged and Jason’s parents, Gary and Cathy, looked after Erika for the day so they could go. They had a great day away from all the difficulties they were facing. They were there to witness a gutsy Steve Smith century and Nicole was lucky enough to run into Glen McGrath, who just happened to be one of her favourite cricketers so that was an unexpected bonus.
Nicole and cricketer Glen McGrath
Erika had become quite happy again and was eating better now that she was out of hospital. She was walking longer distances and still doing most of the things a toddler should do.
On the 29th Erika had both kidney and hearing tests in preparation for her next round of chemo as she was having her first dose of cicplatin, which is known to cause hearing loss and effect kidney function, and we needed a base line to compare future tests against. The kidney function test was done using her central line so it was not intrusive. Hearing test was done by observing her reactions to different tones. Both results were normal.
I started to feel a sense of normalcy again, the first time since Erika’s diagnosis. This concerned me a bit, as there was nothing normal about what was happening. The rhythms of the chemo cycles and our daily procedures were settling into a routine I guess and looking back now, I see it was what we needed to stay sane. We couldn’t live with the chaos of that first couple of months or we would have all gotten ill over time.
Owen and Alex visited on the weekend before we were due to go back in for round three. It was good for them to spend some time with us and get a feel for how Erika and Nicole were coping. It cheered us all up, which was perfect timing, as we were in for a difficult week ahead.
