It's another big day for Drew! Today's his transplant day! He's been doing fairly well since the chemo stopped Saturday afternoon. He's getting sick, and having diarrhea (not Cdiff though!), and you can tell he doesn't feel the best. But he is still wanting to play for short periods of time, ad sleeping fairly decent in between getting sick at night. He's not the best we've seen him obviously, but he's certainly not the worst...yet. This morning they brought up the stem cells in a cooler, and a nice warm water bath to thaw them out. We had the chaplain come up to say a blessing over them and Drew, and without too much more ado, they hung the bag of stem cells and got them flowing! They were preparing me that sometimes they have to slow the flow down or even stop it since the recipient can sometimes not tolerate the infusion very well, we'd see what Drew did. True to form, Drew didn't do much, laid there and watched Paw Patrol, and within 30 minutes, 9.5 million stem cells were transplanted. The transplant guy was impressed with our collection and happy we could give him so many and still have enough for the next one! After the infusion was complete, they put through some kind of preservative to protect and keep the cells lively before they are completely absorbed--it makes his secretions smell like corn! So weird, but coming in to his room you'd swear someone opened a can of creamed corn! So now we wait. Wait for him to bottom out sometime this week, and hang out there until these stem cells grow. While at the bottom, if you could see a cross section of his bones, they'd essentially be hallow before the stem cells grow back the marrow. It's such an amazing process, ugly yes, but miraculous at the same time. How thankful we are that we are doing this at such a time with such medical advancement. Glory be to God! Everyone is still reminding us that the worst is still to come. The mouth sores should appear after he's bottomed out, the bone pain we've experienced in the past will probably return as his marrow continues to die and then is stimulated to grow back, and the nausea/diarrhea will likely continue. Please keep praying that Drew is spared the worst of it, that he can be as comfortable as possible with medications to help, and for strength, peace and positive attitude for us as we hold his hand through this most intense part of his treatment.
Molly and I had a great time in Iowa for Corn Carnival. The Iowa countryside with the fields of corn and beans is just beautiful this time of year! At Carnival we saw a movie, watched the Grand Parade, did a 5K (my sister and I, not Molly!), rode carnival rides, swam at the hotel pool, watched fireworks, and ATE a lot. It was great, but as a lot of things this year have been, a little sad too. So many things Drew would have loved also, so many little boys reminding me of Drew, so many families enjoying their summer together. But this is where we are this year. We cling to the hope that next year we all can be together again at these things, and will continue to march through this path God has put us on to get there.
The staff gave Drew a gift today on this big day, that some even refer to as a second birthday! He was so excited for the Mega Block farm set, and played with it for a solid hour after he opened it this morning! Molly is in Ames this week with my family, having a little Summer visit to her grandparents. Their activity this morning was taking a bath in Grandma's big bathtub!
Thank you all for your prayers, as always!!
~Heidi
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