Myeloma is a tumor involving specialized white blood cells in the bone marrow. The cells that are affected are plasma cells, which are our antibody-producing cells. A malignant or cancerous plasma cell is called a myeloma cell. Myeloma is called "multiple" since there are frequently multiple patches or areas in bone where tumors or lesions have developed.
As the myeloma cells grow in the marrow they crowd out the normal plasma cells. They also crowd out normal white cells, red cells, and platelets. (Low red blood cell count was one of the reasons his Doctor ran the more extensive blood work-up in the beginning – we now know they were being crowded out by the myeloma cells.)
Autologous stem cell transplantation is an important therapy for many myeloma patients. This procedure uses the patient's own stem cells to restore blood cell production after intensive chemotherapy.
What Are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are immature cells that grow and divide into mature red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. The type of blood cell that a stem cell will develop into is determined by the specific needs of the patient's body.
Stem cells can be collected from the peripheral blood (a PBSC collection) and/or from the bone marrow. (Dad’s were collected through peripheral blood using this fancy apparatus on Monday. I took this pic so this is the actual machine he was hooked up to. The process of collecting the blood is called Apherisis. Pretty wild, huh?!)
Apheresis is the process of extracting blood components from the peripheral blood with the help of an apheresis machine. This machine separates blood into its components on the basis of weight. The machine can be used to obtain plasma (the liquid of the blood), platelets, or white cells. For stem cell transplantation, white cells are collected during the apheresis procedures. A small percentage of these white cells are stem cells, which can restore bone marrow function.
Stem cells are mother cells from which several different types of blood cells arise. When stem cells are infused into a patient's bloodstream, they will travel to the inside of certain bones and begin producing cells that eventually mature into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets
Sunday and Monday he will be given high-dose Melphalan to wipe out any remaining cancer cells in the marrow. Unfortunately, it doesn’t just target the evil cells so the healthy ones will be affected as well. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he can tolerate this well just like he’s done with all of the previous treatments.
It’s not final yet, but I believe his stem cells will be given back on Tuesday. This will be considered Day 0. The day his immune system starts over. I’m not sure how long it takes for the stem cells to actually reach the marrow and begin doing their job of producing healthy cells. I will have to research further and get back to you. I am a member of a message board and interact w/a lot of Myeloma patients and a lot of them have said it's usually around days 4 through 6 after transplant that they feel the worst. So I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens and hope any "bad" days aren't too bad. All days following the re-infusion will be very important to stay sanitized and away from germs. Like I said his immune system is starting from scratch, so his body won’t be able to fight infection very effectively on its own.
I hope this information helps you understand what Dad (and Mom) will be enduring over the next month or so.
Oh and just a small warning to this bully named Multiple Myeloma... you are going down!!!!!! So be prepared for a major ass kicking in the days to come!!!!! Sorry, I know its corny. But someone needed to do it and it just felt like the right time :)
Kristi
Information provided in this post was taken from various websites. I’ll list a couple here. They are all such a great source of information.
http://myeloma.org
http://www.themmrf.org/
http://www.myelomabeacon.com
http://www.lls.org/hm_lls
Awesome job daughter :)!!! Love you!
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