Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Another day, another bag of stem cells

We are here for another day of stem cell collection, or harvesting. The way they do it is, for several days before they began collecting, Glenn got a shot twice a day to cause the stem cells in the bone marrow to mature and enter the blood stream so they could be harvested. Harvesting is done by a process similar to dialysis with the blood being drawn into a machine that spins it to separate the different kinds of blood and the stem cells are then collected into a separate bag, and the rest of the blood is returned to him. We are probably going to have to have a third day, tomorrow, of harvesting. :-( We were hoping we could come home for a day before we have to go to the appointment we have Thursday. So we are reminded that we have to take things one day at a time, and that we are living a different life now. We feel kind of out of place here because most of the people here are much sicker than Glenn, or at least farther along in their illness. It is a cancer hospital and Hope Lodge, where we are staying, is for cancer patients from out of town undergoing treatment daily. 
We miss everybody in Jax and so much appreciate all your prayers and good wishes, as well as those of all you who are farther away from us.We look forward to  getting to see everybody in the future and someday getting back to our life in Riverwood. But, alas, that won't be for quite a while. Until then, keep those prayers and good wishes coming in! They do more for us than you can imagine.  

1 comment:

  1. Prayers and love for a 'Good Harvest.'

    Pam B

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