What a Wild Ride!

So, I was an inpatient in the hospital from since before Christmas, until a few days after New Year's (around the 6th or 7th or so). Mainly because they were very concerned about the tumor on my hip, because it was pushing on my organs (specifically my kidney), and the doctor was afraid of Tumor Lysis, after the Chemotherapy. Which I received 4 rounds in 4 days, whereas usually you receive a round every 2-3 weeks.

The day I was let out, they started collecting my Stem Cells for a Stem Cell Transplant, which is a pretty daunting task. They want around 50 million, and I was only outputting around 2.5 million per collection, which takes about 3-4 hours a day to complete. So, even though I was let out of the hospital, I still had to come to the hospital twice a day, to get growth hormone injections (they make your white blood cells produce in an overabundance), get vitals done, and to get blood work. And of course the occasional blood or platelets transfusion.

Finally, I was done collecting this past Wednesday, and saw the Transplant Doctor on Thursday, and his plans are to do more Chemotherapy for the tumor on my hip (to get it as shrunken down as they possibly can), and then a Stem Cell Transplant most likely in the summer. It takes another 3-6 months to recover from the Stem Cell Transplant, so I'm looking at being back to some sort of normalcy around this time next year. Good news is that I'm on a week-long "Mini-Vacation" from going to the hospital. Loving it!

Oh! And my hair finally fell out - so I got it shaved again. And I got a FABULOUS new hat that I'm totally wearing out.