UW Clinical Trial - Visit 4 on Monday

Yesterday, the nurse from the UW clinical trial called to ask me to show up at 7:15am so they can draw blood for lab tests, instead of 8am.

Then, this afternoon, I talked to the nurse at Radiology, who gave me some instructions to follow prior to the insertion of the catheter. I can't eat anything 6 hours prior to the procedure - so nothing after 2am. I can't drink anything except clear fluids - and maybe nothing for two hours prior to the procedure. Yikes!

They need to use a catheter to withdraw my Herminator-2 cells. They will be using a "double-lumen" catheter, which will allow blood to be removed from one tube, where it will go through a machine where they separate out the white, t-cells (AKA Herminator-2 cells), and then they will return my red blood cells and platelets through the other tube. This is a process called "leukapheresis". The insertion of the catheter for this purpose may take as little time as 30 minutes and maybe up to 90 minutes.

Then, leukapheresis may take 2-4 hours.

Then, they remove my catheter. After removal of the catheter, I will need to go to a hospital room for four hours to make sure that I am not bleeding any longer through the hole created from the catheter.

I thought that I would be able to go home almost immediately after leukapheresis. I guess not.

So, after about eight phone calls, we (my sis and I) will be staying another night in Seattle. Luckily, my sis was available. Then to try to get the hotel we have for another night, but I couldn't get a free (complimentary) room through the American Cancer Society because I didn't give them five days notice. I originally thought we would just stay in the same hotel that we will stay in on Sunday the 9th (the Watertown), but the room rate was $139 and when I called one of the discounted places that the ACS knows of, I opted to stay at the Collegean, two blocks from the original hotel, for a price of $71 (including tax). The manager, Sherry, was very nice and friendly. I guess the Collegean is operated through the UW Medical Center and is used primarily for patient visits. They even allow stays of a month or more.

I was tired after that. But I still managed to give comments to NSF's next Strategic Plan.

My parents and I are listening to my son play Mario Party 7. He has a running commentary about the action he and the other characters are doing. It's funny! And, cute. Have a great evening!