We went to the stem cell center early this morning for Mary Jo's last Neupogen shot and collection session.
We got even more good news about Friday's collection. The final count ended up being 840,000 which added to Thursday's count of 600,000 meant that 560,000 was needed today to meet the optimum goal of 2,000,000 stem cells for the transplant. Doctor Savani had set a secondary goal of 1,900,000, if the 2,000,000 goal could not be met.
Mary Jo and her collection nurse, Diane, tried their best, but only 410,000 stem cells were collected today which brought the total collected up to 1,850,000 which left her 50,000 short of the secondary goal and 150,000 short of 2,000,000 goal.
The result of the CD34 indicator from this morning's blood labs indicated that nearly all of the free stem cells in her blood stream had been collected. The CD34 had steadily went down from a .3 on Thursday to a .2 on Friday to today's reading of a .1. So a collection like yesterday's could not be expected.
The team of stem cell doctors meet on Monday afternoons to disuss pending and current stem cell cases. Dr. Savani is going to make a plea for Mary Jo's case with the other doctors since her totals are so close to the goals.
Dr. Savani is going to propose that we proceed with the current schedule for her transplant. To make up for the shortage of stem cells infused, he is going to propose that Mary Jo be given Neupogen to promote the stem cell production after the transplant, as is the practice after chemotherapy treatments.
Mary Jo is not the first person that this has happened to, and what Dr. Savani has proposed has been used without adverse effects on the transplant patient's transplant or recovery.
Needless, to say we were disappointed with today's results. Mary Jo and I discussed a lot of "what ifs" about the length of the collection sessions, and other aspects of the collection process.
But, none of that would change the fact that her collections fell just a little short. She would not have even been close without the remarkable numbers from yesterday's collection. So, we can be grateful for that.
Dr. Savani is going to call us on Monday afternoon after the doctor's meeting. Needless to say, we will be anxiously awaiting that call. At this point, it is in hands of the team of stem cell doctors.
We are praying that whatever decision is made, that it will be the best one for a successful transplant and recovery for Mary Jo. This is our objective, and I know that it is the doctors' objective, as well.
Once again, thanks for your thoughts and prayers. I wish that I had better news to report. I will let you know what the doctors' decision is when we find out on Monday.
Do you get to come back to Louisville or do you have to stay in Nashville until Monday? And if the stem cells are too low, do you go back to Plan B, wait two weeks and collect some more?
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