Catheter in Place

We went up to Piedmont on Friday and they installed Lindsey's Catheter. They use this device to administer all treatments. If she were to get chemotherapy through the veins in her arm, after a period of time, the veins would not be able to handle it, and would most likely collapse. Also there is too much room for error doing it that way, and chemo treatments have been given through ports and catheters now for a long time; I'm sure it was a big breakthrough in treatment when they started doing it. Her catheter comes out of her chest, and it has three lumens attached to it. They are patriotic lumens, one red, one white, one blue. The doctors who put them in were the most concerned medical staff we have yet to encounter in a hospital. They spent a long time making sure that the catheter would not add to her collection of scars, particularly anything that would show above the neckline of her wedding dress. Lindsey was very happy with the care they showed and the time they spent making sure it was done the way she wanted it. Today we went to Crate and Barrel so that Lindsey could register, because she won't be going to malls for a long time. Jacob is on his way this evening, (bringing the dog, of course), and Lindsey is excitedly awaiting Cooper's arrival (and Jacob too)! haha She has two more days of being normal before treatment starts. Tuesday we just go for an hour or so for bloodwork and I'm sure they'll check the performance of the catheter. Then, Wednesday is the first day of her three-day mobilization chemo. The reason it is called 'mobilization' chemo is because they use this one to draw out her stem cells from her bone marrow. It "mobilizes" her stem cells for collection. They give her the chemo much like they have given her all the others. However, they don't give her shots to boost her white blood cells as they normally would. They want her white counts to drop. Once they hit bottom, they start giving her shots of neupogen, which makes her white counts sky rocket; much in the way your white counts would rise if you had a big infection. This fools the body into thinking that something is going on that needs help from the immune system, so the bone marrow sends stem cells out into the bloodstream to help. (Normally the stem cells only reside in your bone marrow and continually make new bone marrow.) This regimen makes them come out. They monitor her daily to see how many are floating around in her blood, and when they think it peaks, they collect them and freeze them. When they first came up with the idea of 'bone marrow transplants' it was much more dramatic, because they went into your bones to get it. This is much easier on the patient. Who knows how they figured all of this out, but we're glad they did !! The procedure of collecting the stem cells is much like a dialysis treatment. You sit in a chair, watch a movie, and they draw your blood out of one tube, run it through a machine that sifts the stem cells out of the blood and returns it to your body in another tube. Very similar to what you would experience if you donate platelets for Lindsey. (please do!) Anyway, the stem cell retrieval should be about a week or so after this chemo. Our biggest concern through all this is avoiding complications. I know you are all praying for Lindsey. Please pray specifically for no complications. Lindsey can handle the regimen that goes according to plan............we need to avoid complications similar to the one's she had with the PICC line......no more of that is allowed.