Day 00 - Part One

Day 00 is the technical term for the transplant day. Since Logan has two transplant days, I'm dividing them up into parts one and two. But really, I should say that I'm extraordinarily tired so this will be brief.

His first day of transplant went well. An autologous stem cell transplant like Logan's involves a few fairly straightfoward steps, which I figure I should detail since I've had a few folks ask. Unlike Leukemia patients and the like, Logan's marrow is actually fine. Patients with blood disorders need donors so medical staff can kill off their diseased bone marrow and replace it with the healthy marrow of the donor. Logan is receiving stem cells because his marrow has been so taxed by round after round of intensive chemo that it simply doesn't work as well as it used to work.

The nurse hooks him up to one bag of extremely carefully preserved stem cell material at a time, and it's pumped into his system via his central chemo port. Given how momentous it is and how much meaning is behind it, the process itself is actually very straightforward and simple. This morning, he felt a little nauseated and threw up once, but in general was okay, but tired. I expect more of the same when I'm there with him myself for Day 00 part two tomorrow morning. I hope that's a good enough explanation for now; as I said, I'm completely exhausted and falling asleep over my keyboard.

Thank you for your continued prayers. There's so much I'd like to share, so I'll try to hold my observations in my heart until I'm clear-headed enough to type them out. Blessings.