It's Transplant Day!! We are happy to share that all has gone smoothly for Dad so far, and he is doing well. Following the confirmation from his transplant doctor that Dad was healthy enough to go through with the transplant, the doctors immediately gave Dad the medications that cause the bone marrow to produce lots of stem cells and make them spill out into the bloodstream. He then went to the "Collections" phase where stem cells and lymphocytes were collected from his bloodstream for four days. The doctors were very happy with the amount of stem cells and lymphocytes they were able to collect from Dad. They need to collect 4 million stem cells during this phase and they were able to collect 10 million from Dad! They needed half a million lymphocytes and they collected much more than this as well. These were then frozen and he received three days of a very strong chemo. This chemo was different than the chemo that he received during his previous chemo treatments, so we weren't sure how he would tolerate it, but we are thankful the side effects he has experienced so far have been minimal, with some stomach upset, nausea, vomiting, and headaches. This is pretty typical, according to the doctors, who tell us to expect the really bad side effects (extreme tiredness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, mouth & digestive lining sores, fevers, etc) to begin later this week, with the worst of it lasting for 2-3 weeks before his blood counts begin to rise and he begins to hopefully feel a bit better every day after.

Dad was due at Mayo at 5:30 this morning for his big day, got a four hour infusion of fluids, then seven bags of his bone marrow cells that were collected during the "Collections" phase. These cells will migrate back to the bone marrow and "start over" -growing new, cancer-free blood cells, as all of his remaining blood cells were wiped out by the chemo. He will receive the remaining seven bags of his bone marrow cells tomorrow, as they need to do two "transplant days" due to the amount of stem cells they were able to collect. Everything so far has been done outpatient, but Dad was admitted to the hospital for tonight and tomorrow night, as that is what his insurance dictates for the transplant days. We are relieved he will be in the hospital and have all he needs for these two days and nights, as we enter into the recovery phase when he will begin to become very symptomatic. We thank God he has continued to be optimistic, strong, and in good spirits, and hope those continue in the rough days ahead. He has been able to go for a long walk every day he has been in Rochester (23 days now), maintain a good diet, and keep up his strength. He comments often on how impressed he is with his transplant doctor and the nurses who work in the transplant unit. We are so thankful he has a great care team at Mayo and know he's medically in the best hands. His days during recovery will be filled with doctor and nurse visits, bloodwork and labs monitoring, consults with nutritionists and other specialists, and many appointments at Mayo. This will continue throughout the recovery phase, as the doctors and nurses closely monitor and follow him while his blood counts slowly begin to increase and help him to feel better, gain strength, and rebuild his immune system.

As we enter into the recovery phase, we thank everyone for their continued prayers and support, and would like to again request you to please keep Dad in your prayers as he begins his recovery and the most difficult part of this process. Knowing others are praying for Dad as he goes through this brings much comfort to our family, and we appreciate them more than we can say. 

Thank you again so much for the continued prayers, messages, cards, and support. They are appreciated so very much by us all. We will post another update soon!