Happy 2nd Birthday Geo! (by Susan)

This is to Geo - Happy, happy second birthday! Everything went well today with 5 more bags of stem cells delivered to our guy.  They gave him a lot of Ativan and Benadryl, which made him pretty sleepy, but he was still able to work on a Mongo coding project he's been doing (go figure - he likes coding better than jigsaw puzzles).   He still smells like creamed corn gone bad from the DMSO solvent they use, but the stem cells are now all circulating back in his body. 

I am getting good at cooking very bland dinners - tonight we had little fake chicken patties made of soy and wheat gluten, white rice, and mixed vegetables.  Yum!  The good thing is that George was able to eat - a lot of transplant patients completely lose their appetites during this period. 

So we can give our cheer - GO stem cells, GO - back to George's bone marrow where you can create your factory for his brand-new immune system!  It usually takes 12-14 days for this "engrafting" to take place.  We will be back at the hospital to get him checked and to get IV hydration and nutrients until engrafting happens.  He may also have to get transfused red blood cells or platelets if his counts get too low.  He is on all kinds of preventive drugs to keep him from getting sick while his white blood cell counts are down to zero.  This is the tricky time when we have to keep him totally germ-free until his new immune system can grow.

So, GO GO stem cells!