Day Zero "Its Jody's Birthday today"

Today is Jody's birthday, well not her real birthday but it is her birthday in cancer world. It is the beginning of a new life... Jody will receive her donors stem cells today. They are estimating the stem cells will arrive here late afternoon and go straight to the lab for processing.

We are so grateful to have a donor and are honored to receive his love. Without his love of mankind, and sacrifice of time and comfort we would not be here today. It is with great grace we accept his gift of love. We hope to someday meet our donor and thank him personally. This brings me to our quote of the day below.

I decided to stay last night, to be with her in case she was sick, so I spent the night. Jody did fantastic! She did not get sick once. During the night we had several runs to the bathroom, but no nausea. HOORAY! Sleep is a fleeting thing here at the hospital all night long there are blood draws, vital checks and alarms going off as IVs stop, start and get restarted. But we did get a good night of sleep, whatever that is...

Her ANC, which is a measurement of her immune system has begun to drop. The ANC measurement is a compilation of her blood cell counts. When Jody first arrived it was over 5,000. Steroids bumped hers up to 7,000. The immune system is what fights viruses and other diseases and the chemo drugs are used to kill the blood cells the are a major component of the immune system. Jody's ANC has been staying up, but last night began to drop significantly. Jody is now down to 1,760. At this level Jody will be required to wear a mask and stay behind the two air-lock doors in the hallway that cordon off the ward she is in from the rest of the hospital. Jody's ANC will continue to drop the rest of today and will be down to zero soon.

Jody has had a nice day, no sickness or bouts of nausea. She has had two walks in the hall for her exercise and she has eaten some of her dinner. I went home to get the mail, do some wash and check the house. I returned to the hospital by 5:00 pm.

At 7:30 pm there is a nurse shift change. Jody loves all of her nurses, but has grown especially close to Julie who will be her RN tonight. Julie will help prepare Jody for her donor's stem cells. Anxiety is high as we wait to hear about stem cells arrival. We were told earlier today that the courier's flight was delayed. Around 4:00 pm we were told the cells were in transit and at 7:30 pm we were told they were in town but delayed at the airport. They would begin her prep drugs at 8:30 pm and she would receive the donor cells an hour later at 9:30 pm. As I write  this post it is 8:45 pm and we have not begun any preparation.

I should explain that the stem cell transplant is special for the BMT team and patient. As I mentioned, it is the beginning of a new life for Jody and we celebrate it as her birthday. IV bags are hung from a pole and the nurses and doctors insert a straw shaped plastic tube into the bag to deliver the drugs to Jody. The act of placing the tube into the bag is called a stick. The doctor, nurses and technicians will all be present when the doctor sticks the bag of donor stem cells and begins the IV. I will tell everyone how it went, when it occurs... I am back... I took pictures of the event and will post them later today.

The cells are here and we have begun the process... it is now 9:00 pm. At 9:45 the donor stem cells were delivered into Jody via her IV. Everything went great. It will take about an hour and a half to infuse. They wanted to infuse at least six million cells and no more than eight million. They were excited to discover that a little over ten million cells were harvested from the donor. Based on Jody's weight they decided to give Jody seven million donor stem cells and freeze the balance for her if a second transplant is needed.

Here are some of the pictures

This is Julie and Jody. Julie will be the on duty nurse for the transplant.

The Igloo cooler has arrived

Doctor Gregory sticking the donated donor stem cell IV bag

Our jaws dropped open, right after this picture Dr. Gregory dropped the bag. Everyone stopped and stared, but fortunately everything was OK

The transplant was in progress!

Actual label from donor's stem cell donation

Label from the stem cell bag.

The exact time the stem cell transplant started

I am going to spend the night and will be back with you tomorrow. Thanks for all of the love and support.

"Grace means more than gifts. In grace something is transcended, once and for all overcome."

"Grace happens in spite of something; it happens in spite of separateness and alienation."

"Grace means that life is once again united with life, self is reconciled with self."

"Grace means accepting the abandoned one."

"Grace transforms fate into a meaningful vocation. It transforms guilt to trust and courage."

"The word grace has something triumphant in it."

Yrjo Kallinen

1886 - 1976

Finnish Humanist