Sat,
06 Sep 2003
Day
One
Hey
there. It's Sat afternoon and Jade, Garrett and Sadie
are all taking naps. (Hard to tell which of the four
of us is the idiot that's awake.) Thought I'd give
a quick report on the activities of yesterday.
In the morning, at 9 am, Jared was harvested for the
second time (first being Thurs morning). Jade was
having blood work done and a check-up at the BMT office,
at 10 am. At noon Jade went down to radiation therapy
for his total body radiation. While he was being "microwaved"
(to use his term) I was notified by the BMT office
that Jade's magnesium levels had dropped by 50% in
the last day and he needed to come up for a magnesium
infusion for two hours as soon as he was done with
radiation.
After that we were able to come home for just about
an hour and a half when LDS called and said Jared's
stem cells were ready and to come back. Jade received
Jared's stem cells (painless process which looks like
a blood transfusion except they did a gravity line
and let them run in as fast as they could) and a couple
bags of saline and was observed for 90 minutes. His
vital signs all remained good through the process
but he was shivering and shaking so they kept him
a little longer. We finally left the hospital about
9 pm.
The radiation did have a fairly quick effect on Jade
and he was tired and body sore the rest of Fri and
still today. His lymphnodes have swollen huge in his
neck/throat and are putting pressure on his sinuses,
throat, ears, etc. That should subside in the day
or two we hope. Jade also started another immune suppression
drug in the middle of night which he will be on for
a month. All the medication he's on has been a little
rough the last couple days as his body gets used to
its new "norm" for the next month. We will
be doing magnesium infusions here at home Sat and
Sun and then recheck his levels at his Mon appt. Jade
will be seen at the BMT clinic every Mon, Weds, and
Fri for the next month.
While there were some rough moments yesterday and
today, I think all in all the process went quite well.
We heard from the staff Jared's counts from being
harvested were fantastic. I don't want to speak for
him but he seemed to do good coping with the injections,
bone pain, headaches and fatigue from the process
of being a donor this week.
We are now in the waiting game. Ahhhhh, and I'm such
a patient person anyway. It's wonderful to have Jade
home though and not be in the hospital. (If he gets
a fever of 101 we are at LDS as fast as we can but
otherwise he's home.)
Thank you for your faith and prayers and concern.
We are grateful and receive much strength and hope
from you. Take care and we'll let you know how Jade
is doing!
Much love......................Tanya and the napping
co.
