Transplant - Birth day

10:45 a.m. Drew is deep in sleep. He has walked once today and had a bit of a milkshake and returned to bed. His mouth is very sore with ulcers, but he complains of nothing else but a lack of energy. His nurse (aptly named Dawn for this day) says his white blood cell count is almost zero. That’s good, as it means the radiation and chemo have done their job. We are now waiting for the little bags of stem cells from the cord bank located at the Bone Marrow clinic in a locked room behind the deli (hmmm…hope they get the right type of stems). Jane, Jordan, and Boxley are all on separate laptops on the Internet, only interrupted by cell phone messages and the occasional visitor. The six person medical team arrives outside the door, on their laptops, doing their 20 minute debrief of the nurse and a review of the data and today’s plan. They will enter the room "en masse" shortly.

11:20 a.m. The doctor and physician’s assistant discuss Drew’s few complaints and good response to radiation. Their outlook is to see results from the transplant in 15-20 days. The doctor (aptly named Long) reminds us of the longer time stem cells sometimes take to engraft because they are younger and less mature, so not to get too nervous in the first two weeks. He also told Drew to enjoy the milkshakes because he will be TPN (total parentarel nutrition, or getting fed through the vein) in a few days.

They puzzle over his blue tongue, a strange and unknown side effect, until Drew explains by showing them his Extreme Grape Gatorade. Everyone gets a good laugh.

11:35 a.m. The stem cells arrive. One is from a B+ female donor and one is an 0+ male donor. (Drew was A+ until a few minutes ago – he will change to whichever one wins!) The stem cells are not particularly exciting to look at … watered-down ketchup would be the closest description. We complain about the lack of ceremony and one nurse breaks into the Beatle’s “you say it’s your birthday” for a few moments. Drew goes back to sleep, having been given Benadryl to avoid any allergic reaction.

11:50 a.m. The two stem cell bags have stickers which clearly prove they came from pediatrics – cartoons and animals – as well as the ID tags. We won’t know the donor names, but one donor is already three years old, and the girl’s bag had sports stickers, so that’s a good sign. The first bag, the boy’s, goes first. Drew is still pretty uninterested. He even disappears into the bathroom during the transplant (how rude of him) and we have to sit outside and wait. No wonder they don’t have stem cell transplants on “House” or “ER” or “Grey’s Anatomy” shows…boring. He feels a bit funny, so the drip is slowed down. The boy cells finish anticlimactically.

12:20 p.m. The girl cells are a little darker and there is less of it (67 ml vs. 92 ml). So the whole deal is about 5 ounces of red liquid. The girl bag has a surfer sticker on it and a sticker that says “grow cells grow”. She must be from California (actually it was collected in St. Louis).

1:17 p.m. Dawn squeezes a flushing liquid into the empty bag to make sure every stem cell runs down the tubing and into Drew.

The Benadryl wears off. We go for a walk.

Game on. Day 0.