Recovery

Recovery has been extremely fast after the PBSC collection.

The day of collection

The most painful part of the procedure was when they removed the tape from my right arm that had held the “in-port” stationary. The tape unfortunately took some arm hair with it – a feeling similar to having your eyebrows waxed.

While this hurt I must admit I am a wimp when it comes to pulling band-aids off. You can draw all the blood you want, but please don’t smash that band-aid down into my arm hair.

The only side effect I felt from the collection procedure was the body stiffness and aching I felt from not moving for over 6 hours. Once I was able to get on my feet and moving, the stiffness worked itself out within the hour. The ache was solely in my backside from having lounged on it all day. This ache slowly worked itself out over the evening and was completely gone by the morning.

Upon returning home, Mom and I were able to take a slow, ambling walk through my neighborhood. I had expected to feel completely exhausted but I just felt a mild sense of fatigue mixed with a surprising sense of being hyper. It was an odd feeling.

The evening of the collection, I was feeling 95% back to normal with no ill effects from the procedure itself. My IV sites looked beautiful. There was no pain or bruising. You would have no idea I had done anything so serious earlier that day.

My IV sites ~5 hours post PBSC collection. No pain, no bruising, no problems!

I was still feeling some aches from the Filgrastim, but they had changed from a sharp pain back to a dull ache. I had been told that most of the aching would be gone within 24 hours of stopping the Filgrastim injections.

The day after collection

I awoke with the knowledge that my stem cells had already been or were currently being infused into my recipient. This thought left me with an incredible sense of happiness and peace.

Over the course of the day, Mom and I took more walks. Walking seemed to help my body the most by getting all of the kinks and knots out of my muscles and all of my blood flowing again.

I was still feeling a very slight ache in my pelvic bones from the Filgrastim, but this was the only noticeable symptom left from the entire process.

That evening I was feeling 99% back to normal.

In the days that followed

I felt 100% within 48 hours of the procedure. The fatigue and bone aches from the Filgrastim had completely disappeared and my sleep patterns were thankfully back to normal.

While I felt great, my post-collection CBC had shown a low platelet count, which is a normal side effect of the procedure. My body was already busy making new platelets, and my platelet count would quickly start trending upwards until they reached normal levels in a few days.

Until that time, I was advised to avoid the gym and alcohol. My surrogate drinkers once again stepped in like champions to help. Oddly enough, no one volunteered to be my gym surrogate.