I woke up early as we had to get Danielle to the hospital by 7:00. I jumped in the shower, when I got out, Danielle was sitting on the kitchen floor crying. I thought maybe she was just feeling unwell, but it turns out that she was scared. The process requires that they put a CVC line into her jugular vein, while she is awake. With her phobia of needles and blood, that seemed like an insurmountable obstacle for her to submit too. We talked for a few minutes and then knelt in prayer on the kitchen floor asking the Lord to bless her with peace. Well, we managed to make it to the hospital a little late, but we made it. We checked Danielle in at the Bone Marrow Transplant unit and then walked with her, slowly and rather hesitatingly down to the x-ray/ultrasound department to prepare for her line insertion. When we arrived a number of staff came out to help, as she was crying again by this time. Everyone was very kind and understanding. They provided her with some drugs to help her relax and lose some of her inhibitions. They worked well, except that life has been very stressful for Danielle of the past few months and she had carefully kept her pain tucked inside and the medication let it all out. She cried more about all the things that had hurt her so much over the past few months. I don't think that is what the staff was expecting. The nurse said to Danielle "We are done putting the IV in?" I told her"SHE is not crying about the IV any more". About now they injected more drugs into her IV and she laid back and smiled, kissed everyone as they wheeled her into the procedure room. While there she commented about how much she loved her Mom and thanked them for the music( which was not there). She did just fine for the rest of the procedure.
Now that she was settled, I left and went upstairs to where Michael was being prepared with the final procedures before transplant. Before transplant he had to have two doses of total body radiation to kill his immune system and one more dose of ATG - the rabbit antigen.
He was just heading downstairs for his first dose of TBI. They take what looks like a huge plexi glass box on wheels, made specifically for Michael. They put him in it and then proceed to pack his body with what looks like large flat ziplock bags full of play dough. They pack it around his whole body, except his head, leaving no air spaces, until the whole box is completely full and weighs about 700 lbs. He is then wheeled into the radiation room and for 7 minutes to each side, is exposed to radiation. They unpack him send him back upstairs wait six hours and then repeat the same procedure. Between, he is hooked up to the IV for the last dose of ATG.
Michael started the day very grogy, but as the day went on he became more coherent. After his last dose of radiation he wanted to go up and see Danielle.
Danielle is on the 4th floor in the Apharesis unit. She has a line with two ports. She is hooked through her line to a big machine that is taking her blood out of her body, through the first port, sending it through the machine to remove the stem cells and then return her blood to her through the second port. We got there close to 4:00pm. Danielle had been on the machine most of the day, and they had just determined that they had been able to harvest enough cells, so she was almost done.
Michael , Shaelynn, Sean and I were all there. Michael was tired and weak, but emotional at this moment. After they unhooked her from the machine and pulled out her line, Michael hugged her and cried, and then hugged all of the rest of us too.
We took Michael back to his room and Danielle back to the apartment. The actual transplant took about 30 minutes of IV. Michael doesn't even remember it. It is quite unspectacular, just a like a blood transfusion, with a lot more preparation required. It is an amazing miracle that can take life from one person and give it to another, so that through one person,two both can live.
But, This is not the end, it is just the beginning and it will be several months before we can truly celebrate what has happened on this day.
9 years ago
