Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here!

Well... Not everyone is here. That would be crazy crowded. But everyone is here in spirit.

Today is Ed's stem cell retrieval day. It's a big day. He had a catheter placement this morning, just like mine, and now 4 hours of fun and he can't move. At least he can move his arms with a catheter in his chest. He has been having bone pain the last 2 days. I hate that. So they are giving him a Percocet. Hope it works quickly. He started watching a movie and got a headache and agitated.

His blood pressure dropped quickly for some reason. From 140/79 to 89/37. So they pushed fluids, gave him hot packs and cold packs and now he is eating and drinking. The pain is lessened, but not gone not fast enough. Got a second Percocet.

My hero. Hang in there, bro. This pain is temporary. This treatment will cure me for a lifetime. How can I say thank you enough?!

 He is much better now. I think this one was fake.  I have that face.

Last TBI for me. All went well but I could have effects 2-6 weeks from now. I only needed 2 lying down but they marked my up for that.

You don't get to see the front. They said I have big lungs. Yah. I yell a lot.

By 2 pm he was disconnected and off to eat. And relax.

I am done with radiation.

Ed got a dose of plasma at 3 pm. He was much better by then and released for the day. They take his catheter out tomorrow.

The actual collection went well. Dr. Morris called him a show off. They wanted 8.5 million stem cells. Ed gave 17.27 million. Wow. Rock Star.

So, I started my ProGraf. It is to prevent graft vs host disease. You can kind of think of it as anti rejection drugs. I will have a portable pump 24/7 for bout a month. Wow.

Tomorrow between 9 and noon I will get my donor cells. It will about a one hour infusion. Pretty anticlimactic, I am told.  Let's hope they are right.

That's it for the night. Hang it up and get some rest. We will convene again tomorrow.

Thanks for all the good thoughts. We are getting this done one day at a time.