Day Zero

Transplant Day (referred to as "Day Zero") is here. It is called Day Zero because they count forward from today. Once a patient gets to Day 100, he or she graduates back to his or her oncologist for regular follow up. Parrish's transplant should start around noon today. The nurse will thaw the stem cells in Parrish's room until they are the consistency of a slushy (sort of like an Icee, the doctor said....talk about ruining cherry-flavored Icees forever...). After that, the nurse will hang the bag of stem cells just like a regular IV, and the cells will enter Parrish's body through the Hickman catheter in his chest. Parrish will receive four bags of stem cells. How many bags a patient receives is determined by the volume of stem cells collected from the patient, as well as a patient's body mass, weight, etc. For some patients, it can take many days to collect enough stem cells, so they might have twelve bags of stem cells, but not a high density of cells in each bag. Other patients might only have a couple bags, because there were so many stem cells in those two bags. How long the transplant takes depends on how many bags of stem cells must go into the body. Parrish's transplant will likely take about three hours, and he will be hooked up to monitors the entire time to make sure his vitals remain stable and that he isn't having any adverse reaction to the cells. (There are a variety of side effects that can potentially occur, so he will be closely monitored throughout today and tonight.) Right now, they have increased his fluids and then will give him a couple Benadryl doses, as well as a steroid dose, to minimize adverse transplant reactions.

Most people say that Transplant Day is rather anticlimactic. You expect to feel something...or you expect to at least feel better. That is definitely not the case. It really just feels like any other IV that you have had. And, you still feel terrible (and likely will feel way worse before you feel better). So, it is sort of a weird day. 

Everyone has asked how Parrish is, and honestly, he is having a rough go of it. Not really anything unexpected or that we weren't warned about, but not sure anyone can prepare you for this. Parrish's white counts have plummeted, so he is completely exhausted. A kind of tired that for most people is incomprehensible. He can't even really carry on a conversation or keep his eyes open. And he is, shall we say, a little testy. With the fatigue comes physical weakness. He has to take a shower every day, and just that totally wiped him out. He couldn't even stand in the shower. The doctor has been able to manage Parrish's nausea with meds, but he just has no appetite. I did get him to eat a couple bites of sorbet this morning, but that has been about it for the last few days. He is hanging in there, but he is ready...really ready...to start feeling better.

So, prayers today for a smooth transplant, lots of healthy stem cells and a speedy recovery.

Much love,

Molly

****Update at 3:30 pm: The transplant is finished. Parrish has pretty much slept through the entire process (and is still sleeping). Now we are just in "wait and see" mode. Many thanks for all the thoughts and prayers today!