Day 0: Transplant Day

 The early morning started off a bit rough, with Nate and I being woken up every hour for labs, weight check, and a finger stick to verify a low glucose from his labs.  He then started screaming for red juice, which I couldn't get for him from the cafeteria because it was 3am and the cafeteria was closed.  The PCT (patient care technician) said she would go down and find him some.  Honestly, I was in a sleep deprived, half awake stupor.  I probably mumbled something and laid back down, hoping Nate would fall asleep and stop screaming for juice.  I'm not sure where she got it, but a few hours later when they were getting the finger stick, Nate had some red Gatorade that he was slamming.  After barely eating or drinking anything at all yesterday, he woke up dying of thirst and drank a ton of "cold cold water".

I woke up pretty bleary eyed after a night of half sleep and not really knowing what was going on.  Then I remembered...transplant day!  One of Nate's premeds was a HUGE syringe of oral Tylenol...ugh...oral meds are just not going so well right now, and it's pretty important for him to keep it down.  I've learned over the last couple days to give him a drop...he will throw up...then I can hopefully get the rest down.  Luckily, it worked.  Nate had been asking for ice cream and went to town on some chocolate while he waited for all his premeds to be infused.

 Everything always runs a little behind and at 11:30am, all his premeds were finished, Nate was hooked up to all the monitors and they were given the go ahead to thaw Nate's stem cells.  The small bag was taken out of the portable deep freezer, thawed in a warm water bath, drawn up into a syringe and infused through his central line.  The infusion took 15 minutes.  The bag was washed and the wash was infused...then a flush...and done.  Nate did awesome.  Most kids puke when the cells are being infused because the preservative smells (and tastes for the kids) really bad.  It has been described as a creamed corn or garlic smell.  The nurse told me to be ready for Nate to throw up, especially because he has been so nauseaous the last couple days.  I had Nate suck on a sucker during the infusion and he didn't even flinch.  His vitals remained stable through the whole infusion and he did great!  I also could not smell anything!  Apparently, some people can smell it and some can't.  The nurse had told me that she can't smell it, but it gives her a headache.  Sure enough, right at the end of the infusion, I started to get a headache...weird.  Even weirder...Chris got to the hospital tonight and imediately sent me a text saying that the whole room stunk!  The preservative is excreted out of the lungs, so Nate's breath will smell like creamed corn for a few days.  I would say that it's too bad for Daddy that he has the weekend shift and he can smell it...but, he likes creamed corn. :)

Nate fell fast asleep towards the end of the infusion and slept hard for several hours.  He woke up a little goofy and hungry.  He actually ate much better today than he did yesterday.  They changed his anti-nausea medication and added a third one, so that he will be getting something every 2 hours instead of every 3.  The third medication makes him goofy, but if it stops him from throwing up and makes him want to eat, it's worth it.  Tonight they started TPN (IV nutrition), he received his 1st of three more doses of palifermin (to help decrease mouth sores) and started his daily Neupogen (to increase white blood cells) shots again.  His blood work this morning showed that his ANC was zero (no immune system), but his red blood cells and platelets were stable.  They will check every day and give him transfusions as needed.  Over the next couple days we expect fevers and mouth sores to start showing up.  We will just take each day and challenge as it comes.  Come on super little stem cells...multiply, divide...do your job, we're counting on you!