First, a long-term, high-flow central venous catheter (or central line) was threaded through his internal jugular vein to the subclavian vein during surgery this morning. The goal is to get this procedure completed roughly 24 hours prior to the beginning of harvesting, if possible. This device will stay in place until he is released by Mayo, and is used to remove the stem cells and also to inject the "conditioning" drugs in a week or so (chemo).
Second, as you know, John has undergone twice daily shots for four days in order to bring his stem cell count up in preparation for the second phase of bone marrow transplant, which is the collection (or harvesting) phase. The minimum level pCD34 (stem cell) count needed to be 10 before he could get clearance to begin tomorrow. Today we learned that his count is 16! The doctors were more than happy, as this means John is responding well to treatment thus far. We are hoping that the collection phase is one to two days max - the fewer the number of collection days the better, as the process is not only tedious but places significant demands on the various organ systems in the body, especially the kidneys. We'll tell you more about that amazing process soon! (Photo/Muppets/Google Images)
