All Done!

When they did the blood draw this morning part of that was to test how many stem cells were in my blood after the days of injections. They were super happy with the amount that my body produced, about 8 times more than needed! This was good news in many ways, it allowed them to collect extra in case it's needed for the patient, but it also meant I spent less time on the apherisis machine. Instead of 4 to 6 hours, I was on there just under three hours! Everything went smoothly. I did get a little tingling in my fingers and toes, but they gave me some calcium and it went away pretty quick. 

This is me hooked up to the apherisis machine. The blood goes in from my left arm, and a centrifuge separates the stem cells and plasma and the remaining blood returns in my right arm. They will actually mix the plasma and stem cells for transportation, as the plasma is necessary to keep the stem cells healthy and not clot up.

And here I am after everything is done. The plasma is the yellow on the left, and the stem cells in the red. Right after taking this picture, a courier took them both in a little red igloo cooler to be flown to the patient.

My wife on the far right, and the wonderful staff at Georgetown University Hospital. They took wonderful care of me through the whole process.

Since I finished early, I stopped to support a fellow donor next to me.

Time for some rest now, then will go out for dinner later. I'll write up more on the process and my thoughts later.