Day 0: Cold blood, warm heart

Richard was infused with his stem cells today. Here he is before being majorly drugged with anti-nausea stuff.

Although the actual infusion lasted less than five minutes, there was a bit of formality and protocol in the delivery of his stem cells. Four nurses were involved in the process; another two popped in to "help" but I think they just wanted to be part of the excitement. Eh. I don't blame them.


One nurse hauled in the large tub carrier on a dolly. This tub had stickers on it from all sorts of travels from what I could tell. It reminded me of the old steamer trunks plastered with labels from around the world. After one nurse unlocked the tub (shown in the picture...this is a new digital camera, so this first shot is a bit shaky) , another nurse donned large blue gloves and scanned a doohickey on the top, which unlocked an inner container. She then reached in and removed the frozen bag of cells. Her gloves were coated with ice. It was so cool (no pun intended). Several checks of numbers, name, and birthdate between Richard's arm band and the blood product were done.



The Icy-Gloved nurse handed the small packet of frozen cells to Bath nurse, who kneaded the bag in a warm bath until the cells thawed.





Bath nurse handed the bag to Hangingpole nurse, who verified that Richard's arm band matched the blood product. Again. She then hung the bag up on the pole, and inserted it into Richard's port. The nurses mentioned that in the "old days" (12 years ago), they would have about 10 bags to thaw and administer. This was a piece of cake! It took only a few minutes and they were done. It was a bit anti-climactic after all the Nasa launch-like activity.





Richard pretty much slept through the whole thing. The whole day, really. They had him on all sorts of anti-nausea drugs, including ativan. He woke up around 7 p.m., still groggy and mildly nauseated. Our goal at this point is to prevent him from throwing up. The only food he had today was about 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream. The good news is that he kept it down. They took off the blood pressure and heart rate monitor around 6 p.m. He continues to use a medicated mouth rinse 4x/day to prevent the very common mouth sores that SCT patients get. Other things that might happen are: garlic odor for a day and red-tinted urine.

He's even cute when sleeping...

Richard's parents, Larry and Nathalie, dropped by in the afternoon. Richard was awake for a few minutes toward the end of their visit, so I was able to take this picture before they left.

















Thanks to everyone who has called or emailed or posted something on the blog. It means a lot! Since we're really not supposed to use cell phones in the unit, calls can be made directly to the hospital (916.454.2222). He's in room 4317.