Transplant No.2

Hey all,

So as you know, Tom came in last Thursday the 10th (his mom's bday).  He was supposed to have five days of chemo that has low side effects; however he was sick straight away and it was a long five days.  Then he was supposed to have a rough chemo on day six... and was completely fine, began eating and all sorts.  He has a blackberry-apple pie from Rick's Dessert Diner to commemorate his transplant day (I'm eagerly awaiting this).

Transplant was supposed to happen yesterday, the 16th (our anniversary), but the cells arrived after 10pm so they said it was too late and they'd do it in the morning.  Apparently the cells landed at San Francisco Airport just before 6 so the courier must have stopped for a five course meal or something as I don't think it takes that long.

Anyway, he had the transplant this morning, cells infused in about 5 minutes.  Apart from some initial minor shaking, his vitals all stayed steady, there was no allergic reaction this time... all is good so far.  So now they monitor vitals every 30 min for 2 hours, then every hour for four hours, and if all is good he goes back to normal check ins.  He's sleeping off the benadryl currently and catching up on the two nights of missed zzz's due to anxiety.

We had a lovely visit from Corinne and Madalynne on Monday which cheered Tom up, though he wished he was feeling better and able to be better company, but it was nice.  Madalynne played nurse and took care of Tom's sick bags and even gave him a foot massage! Helen, David, and Elaine are here on morning bacon sandwich duty and keeping company while making sure the house, dog, and fish are all good.

The shawl from Aunt Linda and Uncle Fred is keeping everyone warm in the room Tom likes to keep freezing, thank you very much!  Also, we've been blessed (I may have mentioned this previously but I don't remember) from Nickie with some essential oils and infra red heating pad that has been a God send for Tom's back and he's been enjoying some daily foot massages.  I would like to put a disclaimer out there though that I will not be broadening my clientele of foot massages as me even massaging Tom's feet is just a clear display of true love (I hate feet, apart from their good use as a means of transportation).

Right, that's all for now.  Today's counts aren't on the board yet, but yesterday's were as follows:
White blood cells (WBC): 3.2
Hemoglobin (Hgb): 11.6 (probably the highest it's been definitely in the last year)
Platelets (Plt): 114

These good numbers will be short lived as the week's chemo kicks in and the cyclosporine (immune suppressant) along with the small doses of methotrexate to start here daily (to also work on the immune system).  So the numbers should drop and then when these stem cells start to mature and reproduce they'll go up again and be means for discharge.

I'll keep you all posted :)