Friday: an extreme day for Amanda and Deb

Tools of the trade

Scene of the action

The Quinton Line

Divide and Conquer: Deb needed to be in the MRI unit and in Infusion-4. Amanda needed to be on the second floor new hospital Interventional Radiology section for line placement and then go immediately to the Apheresis Unit at the same time as Deb's appointments.  After getting Deb to MRI, Vern headed off to be with Amanda.

Deb had a Quinton line installed back almost three years ago when we began this journey. Today Amanda had one installed. The difference: Deb was extremely sick while Amanda is healthy as a horse. The surgical suite was all laid out with sonogram and X-ray equipment in place so the line could be accurately placed in the right spot. They showed Amanda how the process would work then gave her some local painkillers which did not work. Amanda endured the pain in spite of multiple shots of painkillers. She even felt the two stitches that held the line in place. She was draped during the procedure which triggered her claustrophobia.

We had several rounds of paperwork as it is rare that a well person is processed in a hospital on behalf of a sick patient. There was confusion and a few errors.

Once in the Apheresis unit, the head doctor, Dr. Fox, personally supervised Amanda's care. She is a very senior doctor and has met the inventors of the machine and process used to extract certain parts of one's blood while returning other parts back to the donor. Her assistant physician was an Emory Grad, so we talked Atlanta-talk with him.

The Apheresis machine used is basically a high-tech centrifuge which spins the blood. Each component of blood has a different unit weight so all that particular component accumulates in one area.

Dr Fox said the inventor of the concept of separating blood had a son who needed platelets. The father (the inventor) built a prototype in his garage. He got the basic concept from studying milk separators. The son's doctor gave him expired blood to use in tests. Eventually it worked! Since he worked for IBM, soon IBM began manufacturing the units and Apheresis was invented! Now it is used everyday in medicine. Modern units have gotten smaller and more efficient.

The unit used for Deb and Amanda has yards and yards of clear plastic tubing which are circled in the unit base where the centrifuge is located. The tubing is threaded all around the machine and has all sorts of electronic controls. It reminded me of my grandmother's old Singer sewing machine in the way the tubing is threaded.

Once Amanda's blood began circulating, she became extremely cold. We kept putting warm blankets on her but still she was freezing. Because of the location of the line, Amanda had trouble moving her neck and tried hard to lay still to avoid additional pain. The nurse noted that Amanda's blood began clotting immediately in the tubing so Amanda was given an 81 mg  children's aspirin. It took affect almost immediately and we saw why an aspirin is suggested anytime a heart attack is suspected. It takes immediate affect!

Final collected cells-The labels showed from Amanda and to Deb

. A bag of liquid love!

It took about three hours to collect the cells. When Deb was finished in the clinic, Vern took her home then went back to be with Amanda. Amanda had to leave the line in until the bag of selected cells were examined by Dr Fox in her lab. She used a cell counter to determine the required number of cells had been collected. Otherwise, Amanda would have had to return the next day for more collection. Fortunately, Dr Fox said the quantity and quality of cells was good! Amanda was delighted to be done! She then had to wait two hours before getting the Quinton Line removed. That process was handled by Nancy, the nurse who had been caring for Amanda.

After pulling the line from Amanda's body, Nancy held hard pressure against the wound while it began clotting and sealing itself up. Amanda was given severe restrictions about lifting and holding heavy objects, like her children, for several days. I brought her home after buying her a milk slake and she slept the rest of the afternoon.

Poor thing! Amanda endured a lot of pain in this attempt to help her mother get relief from Deb's otherwise incurable Multiple Myeloma cancer. Thanks you, Amanda, for literally giving your life blood to help Mom!

Speaking of heroes: Amanda's husband Jon and his father David are heroes! They have kept two active kids all week and we bet they will be glad to see Amanda when she returns home tomorrow!
It will be difficult to respect the weight restrictions when Amanda gets home.

Special thanks also to travel angels Dave and Julie who have managed Amanda's travel needs.