Transplant, Day Zero

Well, its 2 p.m., and after a lot of hurry up & wait and a little frustration on the part of our patient Patient, he's getting his stem cells. They just thawed bag 3 of 4 and are ready to hang it.

We're in his regular room, and the nurse is actually performing the transplant. We've been told there's a doctor on the floor somewhere, but they usually don't take part. (I remember 4 years ago the doctor was in the room for part of the transplant -- I couldn't figure out why. His role seemed to consist of pouring the liquid nitrogen used to store the frozen cells onto the floor, trying to make the tiles crack, while the nurse did all the work.)

The pre-meds made Greg pretty loopy, which is probably OK, as his mood wasn't too great this morning. There's a lot of boredom here, with a lot of untimely interruptions. You really can't get any work done, or even watch a TV show. As soon as William Powell announces: "And the killer is...." someone comes barging into the room to do something. The woman who cleans the room is the worst -- she rattles around like a herd of buffalo, talking and complaining the entire time.

They will be giving Greg his 12 bags of stem cells over the next 3 days. There's several reasons why, but a big one is because of the preservative -- too much in one day is toxic. It also smells pretty bad, and will be coming out of his pores & breath over the next several days. I told him that in retaliation, I'm going to the Hill to eat as much garlic as I can. Every day about 3 people from various departments throughout the hospital come by to see if he has any complaints or suggestions. Greg's next suggestion is going to be to change the smell of the preservative to something good. Like bacon. I'll let you know how that works out.

Well, in the time it took to write this, he's about done. Greg came through it with flying colors. Sometimes there's immediate side effects, like nausea, drop in oxygen rate, even cardiac problems. But, true to form, his side effects were minimal.

His lab work shows his blood counts continually going down, but that's normal too. In about 4 days, his white count should be zero. Then they slowly start coming up. He had to have 2 units of whole blood last night. Naturally, they started that at about 10:30 p.m., and it took 4 hours. Even with a sleeping pill, he didn't get much sleep. He's napping now, but I'm betting someone will come barging through the door in about 5 minutes to do something.

Other than that, he's doing fine. Its going to be a long 3 weeks, though. A hospital is no place to be sick!

Thanks to all for the prayers, love & support. Although we can't talk to everyone each day, please know we think of you and appreciate all you do. I'll post again tomorrow (officially Day Plus One).

Love,
Greg & Ann