Neupogen Injections

After hundreds of jabbings, stabbings, infusions and blood draws, you might think needles wouldn't bother me anymore.  But seven years with MS and its intrusive treatments have done little to ease my needle phobia.

The tiny needles terrorize me as much as the big ones. Perhaps I'm paranoid that they'll break off if I flinch or sneeze. To get by, I've learned meditation tricks. My happy places include warm seas with dolphins, long motorcycle rides, and secret snuggles with Salma Hyek in an arcade photo booth. She laughs, bites my ear, we snap a picture... and the needle is in.  Details are important for distracting fantasies.

There's been a lot of needles and not enough Salma this week, but the cute blonde nurses have been very competent and kind as they've attended to me. Everyone at Northwestern is fantastic. Even the hospital food is very good.

Friday and Saturday was an infusion of Cytoxan chemo to shock my bone marrow and  begin the release of stem cells into my  blood. That required a big needle and a catheter tube into my jugular vein for a few hours , followed by several blood samples with smaller needles to make sure that the Cytoxan was doing its job without wrecking my kidneys. Blood tests showed that white blood cell and other immune cell counts had doubled, just as expected.

I left the hospital on Saturday and checked back into my hotel room with friends Sylvia ands Doug watching over me.  Job one has been to stabilize my headache, nausea and muscle spasms with several different meds.

Job two at the hotel has been self injections of Neupogen to release even more immune stem cells into my blood until stem cell harvest on December 23.  As the stem cell count rises, my MS symptoms are getting worse. This is expected, and temporary. My hands and legs are very shaky right now. Typing this blog is slow and difficult. Walking with  a cane is now almost impossible.  I'm grateful to have friends assisting with my injection and mobility issues.

Do not worry if I don't blog much. Getting through the next weeks will be a challenge. I just need to chill and have faith that this is all worth it. Certainly there will be fewer needles as I leave MS and its drugs behind.

Merry Christmas!

Wayne