Let The Harvest Begin

We arrived back in San Fransisco Sunday evening and moved back into the hotel. We have lived in and out of hotels for months now. We are getting very familiar and comfortable with the back and forth. We actually move into the cabinets and drawers! (Something I had never done before) We are so blessed to stay in such a wonderful place.

Yesterday morning we reported to Dr. Wolf's clinic (across the street from UCSF) for blood work. Then we met with a nurse practitioner, and our case manager. Then we took a shuttle to the Mount Zion Hospital (it's a part of UCSF just different kinds of medicine) Kevin had a new quinton-catheter put into his inner jugular vein, this is the 3rd time. We were done for the day at 2pm and had no idea what to do with ourselves. We have rarely, if ever, left the hospital before dark. We had a nice, quick drive back to the hospital were Kevin rested and enjoyed ESPN again (we haven't had satellite for the last 8 months) while my mom and I took a walk around Oyster Point and the marina it was beautiful!

This morning we were up and going around 5am and reported to the plasma-pheresis room on the 11th floor at 7:45am. It was like a reunion walking through the halls. We got to catch up with lots of of favorite nurses. They drew blood right away to check and see if his counts were high enough to start harvesting and they WERE.  He is now hooked up to the machine and they are sucking those stem cells right out. It is about a 4 hour process and then we will go back to the hotel and rest because the next couple of days will be exactly as this one.

 

Dina from the Ukraine (we meet her in Sept. in the ICU when she came to give Kevin plasma-pheresis)

The bag with the red in the bottom is the "goodie bag" with the stem cells in it

 

The line closest to his shoulder is the blood & stem cells coming out of him.
The line closest to his neck is putting the blood without the stem cells back in.

Kevin is doing VERY well and is in great spirits. The nurses are amazed at how healthy he looks, that he's walking around in such a short period of time. We are so blessed to be here at this fabulous medical facility where he is taken care of and watched over by so many. Being here brings our thoughts back to our good friend Dennis Lozano, who Kevin got to speak with last week. We are so pleased that he is thriving at home. His counts are rising some are even in the normal range, he's exercising more (thanks to walking his new dog) and gaining weight. All good news we are so happy that he is feeling so much better!