Things are getting serious!

When I called Woody to tell him that we had gotten the schedule for this coming Monday and Tuesday, he said that it sounded like things were getting serious. Monday he is scheduled

to be at NIH at 8am. He is to have lab work, CT scans, MRI of his brain, chest x-ray, and an EKG. Then Tuesday he is to report to Apheresis at 7:30am. I had to look up "apheresis." Here is the definition that I found: "The process of apheresis involves removal of whole blood from a patient or donor. Within an instrument that is essentially designed as a centrifuge, the components of whole blood are separated. One of the separated portions is then withdrawn and the remaining components are retransfused into the patient or donor." So it is like giving blood...but after it is taken out and spun around and what they want is taken out, then it is given right back to him like a transfusion. I continued to read about this process and why it is done. I think that they are using apheresis for stem cell harvesting for Woody. The article that I read said that the small number of circulating bone marrow stem cells can be harvested to be used in transplantation procedures. Woody doesn't remember this procedure being mentioned the first time that we talked to the doctors at NIH, but I do remember...I had just forgotten about it and don't remember them calling the procedure by name...as it hadn't been mentioned to us again until today's email. This procedure can take up to five hours. At 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, Woody is scheduled to talk to the doctors in the Immunotherapy Clinic. Then I guess we will be free to head home.

Woody got up early, headed to work, worked, walked at lunch, worked some more, and then came home to rest and relax. Once again, he had a really rough time with pain about an hour after he got home.

As soon as I got up, I headed to the computer to attempt to make hotel reservations...once again (definitely not my favorite thing to do!). I will say that it was easier this time...though some how when I got the confirmation by email, they had made them for Sunday and Monday and not Monday and Tuesday as I had requested. Shortly after I discovered that error, I found an email from the research nurse that said that Woody had things scheduled early Monday morning...so it all worked out...we did need them for Sunday and Monday. So I didn't have to change the reservations!

Guess it is time to get the suitcases out...AGAIN!