25th
Infusion Tomorrow
Hi!
It’s been pretty quiet around here the past day and a half. Yesterday, Justin was feeling well enough to walk around the 6th floor “sky lounge” on two separate occasions and even humored his mom and me by playing gin rummy. His cell counts are falling, which is what they’re supposed to do, so he is all prepped and ready for his transplant infusion tomorrow! He has been taking anti-rejection medications so that his body will be friendly to his new stem cells. He will receive the infusion intravenously (through his IV) over the course of a couple of hours. We asked his transplant doctor what to expect tomorrow, and she said that there would not be any immediate reaction. Justin could experience the graft vs. host effect post-transplant, but the symptoms are treatable and many are what we’ve already experienced from chemo. So, it most likely will not be fun… But it’s a new beginning. They actually call it your new birthday around here! I like that.
As I’m writing this, Patty and Justin are joking around about how he needs to shower because he stinks (which he doesn’t), so the nurse is unhooking his IV for him. He has a shower in his bathroom and a really amazing rubber cover that goes over his PICC line so it doesn’t get wet when he showers. He just took some pictures in his room on his iPhone so I will post those for you. See? He’s doing very well.
