Hello friends,

What can I say about transplant yesterday? Chemo nausea and all the great things that go with that started early. Had to use a couple nausea drugs. I wasn’t impressed with the day starting that way. It was a surprise since I have done so good for so many months. It was a 5:30am start to the day at Mayo. They do the transplant on one of their 3 bone marrow pods. You start by getting 4 hours of IV fluids. You need to be well hydrated. They give Tylenol and IV benedryl to help prevent reactions to the preservative they use when frozen. My donor stem cells were frozen -280. They thaw them outside your room until they are a liquid. The stem cells are in tiny bags looking like dilute blood. My donor was a great maker of stem cells so I only needed 2 bags. They hooked the bags up to my IV line in chest and let it roll. The stem cells can’t be run on an IV pump otherwise they get crushed. 1 nurse monitors the stem cell bag flow with a roller clamp. When you are getting the cells there can be reactions to the preservative a tickle in throat, hot flashes and be short of breath. Then you get 4 hours more of fluids and get to leave. I do have 2 more frozen bags of my donors cells here in case I need them. They could use them if there are issues with cell counts not recovering or to boost the donor cells I have. Besides feeling zoned from the Benadryl and nausea meds it went good. My sister has been so nice not to mention my canned creamed corn smell. 

Transplant day is called day zero. Today I can start counting up to day 100 and getting out of here. So here is to day #1. I have heard it mentioned that people think of transplant day as their second birthday. I am just not one of those folks. I see this as a necessary step in my treatment. I am so thankful and blessed that I had a donor. I’m keeping my original date of entry on this earth. 

Was told you feel pretty good until your blood counts drop in 5-7 days. Will see how much shit hits the fan and how long it keeps flinging off the fan blades. I am seen everyday at Mayo on the bone marrow unit. They do labs, nurse assessment and doctor visit. Graft vs host disease is an issue. I was told I need to let them know about any change even the slight ones. If I need any transfusions I will get them that day. It is more than just blood and platelets. Your electrolytes can get messed up and need transfusions too. I will be admitted to Mayo for a short overnight on Friday to get an IV drugs that keeps my immune system quiet. This will hopefully give my European connection a better chance to start making their cells. 

I felt so much love and support yesterday through the nausea meds and benedryl fog. I am a very fortunate lady to have so many people on this ride. Saying thank you will never cover all the positive things people have done for me and my family during this craptastic thing called cancer. You are all rock stars and so appreciated. 

Much love and blessings,

Libby