Transplant Eve

Today was a little rough. Samson woke up in decent spirits after an uncomfortable night, but he never had much in the way of smiles for me today. He has sworn off eating and it seems to hurt him to pee, possibly indicating some sores developing from the chemotherapy. Toward the afternoon and evening, he was just plain hurting, and crying in a way that he rarely does, being the toughest baby in the universe.

Big day tomorrow, but the actual transplant will be anticlimactic. After all of this preparation, it will come down to a nurse simply hanging a tiny bag of Harriet's cells on the already crowded IV pole, probably in the early evening, and hooking it up to one of Samson's IV catheters. One of our nurses suggested I save the label on the bag for Samson's scrapbook.

Before we get to that, though, we have Harriet's harvest. She is scheduled to check in at 9 and be sedated at 10. It is making me completely anxious that I am not going to be home in the morning to make sure she drinks only the right things at the right times. Aaron will no doubt patiently receive many missives from me on this subject in the early morning hours. Did I tell you no orange juice?! Wake her up at 7! Cut her off at 8! It was also worrisome not to be home to prep Harriet tonight, but Aaron said she is in great shape, not worried at all, and Kandis helped her pack some supplies for the big day. Cash is coming to the hospital too, and we are going to hang out while Harriet has her hospital nap. Josephine wanted to go to school, which I think was a good choice. She loves school. Aaron and his mom will stay with Samson while Cash and I wait for Harriet in the surgery area.

I requested the nice anesthesiologist who took care of Harriet for her bone marrow biopsy a few weeks ago, and hopefully he will be there for Harriet's surgery. The father of one of Harriet's friends is an anesthesiologist at OHSU, and he helped us put in that request, which made me feel much better. In another turn of niceness, an OR nurse who has taken care of Samson after a couple of his procedures was disappointed she would be out tomorrow and unable to do Harriet's recovery. So she lined up a friend of hers to sign up for Harriet, and then she came and found me on the 10th floor today to let me know they would be looking out for Harriet and the friend would make sure I get an extra-fast whisk back to the recovery room so Harriet will no way open her eyes without me there. This sort of nurse more than makes up for the stinker one who confiscated my coffee pot.

I am planning that after Harriet's initial recovery, we will be allowed to take her to Samson's room for the remainder of her observation time before she goes home. Cash will have to be taken home then, as other than this day for Harriet, none of the kids are allowed near Samson. The chemo has his immune system pretty much eliminated and he is incredibly vulnerable to illness. At 3 o'clock, Samson will have to go for his own sedation and radiation. When he returns, the cells will be infused and he will be officially transplanted.

I look forward to notifying you that tomorrow is officially over, and to going to sleep with this behind me rather than ahead.