Its Harvest Time!

I just got off the phone with Alpen and Sushma, who are just leaving the hospital. Good news! Alpen successfully completed his stem cell harvest today. He is a little tired and worn out from having his blood pumped in and out of his body all day (from 7:30am - 6:00pm) but he is in good spirits and as usual is making jokes and complaining about Sushma's eye-rolling. (Now can't fault him there--I think we all have suffered from the infamous Sush eye-roll).

The nurses/doctors say they don't think he will have to go back to the hospital tomorrow for more stem cell harvesting, but they will let us know for sure tonight or tomorrow. So that means Alpen is hospital free for the rest of the week! If things stay on schedule, the inpatient part of the transplant will begin as scheduled on Monday, October 27th.

Besides a little bit of body/bone pain and reduced energy, Alpen says he has been feeling pretty good since the effects of the Cytoxan chemo from last week started to wear off. He has been able to eat pretty much anything and has been having loads of fun between the daily visits from friends and family (Jess/Nilesh and Rohan--see the pic, Vivek, Rohit, and others); outings to art museums and crew competitions, and fabulous eating excursions across the city of Boston with the fam and friends. Not to mention his culinary experiments at home---I think he was throwing down some yummy coconut curry and basil potatoes last week.

Sush just got to Boston on Saturday, so that has been great as we all know how much love Sushma always bring with her. It's also was good timing as Palak is in Midterms this week and so Sush's arrival will free Palak up from her daily obligation to have a late-night conversation about capitalism with Alpen