Here We Go!!

Our first day is complete. Well, technically yesterday was really Day -8 since Day 0 is Transplant Day on May 18th. But still.

We had an early arrival time of 6am for our first day. Aaron was scheduled in the OR for his central line placement and a biopsy that needed to be done before admission. He was out of surgery by 10:30am but his room wasn't ready until 5pm. He took a nice long, anesthesia induced nap while we waited.

Eventually, we were admitted to the BMT floor and we started to settle in. Isaac helped get our room set up and then left for the night. We went to bed pretty much right away because we knew it would be a long night with Aaron's first chemo med starting at 1am. The nurses are so impressive - they sneak in and out for meds and lab draws all night. Everything went well for the first night and Aaron was feeling pretty good, although a little sore, when he woke up (bright and early at 4am) this morning.

Today (Day -7) he went through the whole morning routine for the first time. With a central line and all the immunosuppressant meds, he has a pretty strict regimen each morning for hygiene and mouth care to prevent any sort of infections. After that, he was able to eat some breakfast before starting his virtual classes for the day. He'll be continuing his school work as best he can through his regular virtual classes and working when he feels able. His teacher and school have been so great and helpful through the whole process to keep him on track while he's in the hospital. 

His second chemo med started around 12pm and knocked him for a bit of a loop. They pre-medicate with Benadryl which knocked him out - right in the middle of English class! He woke up from that with a really bad headache, but the doctors were able to get some pain meds in right away and he slept it off. He's finishing up the 6 hour course as I type and still feels mostly okay. They told us that this med would have some pretty rough side effects so we're grateful it hasn't been worse.

It has been a little surreal, checking in with a healthy kid, but knowing what's coming down the road. In truth, yesterday was hard and overwhelming. We're all still a little traumatized from our last hospital stay and working through the implications of this one at the same time. They give you a "road map" of what's to come, but how can you really even imagine or prepare? A hospital day can feel like an eternity and it's hard to remember that life is going on as normal on the outside. Six weeks feels like a really long time, especially while we're standing here at the front end. I know that we can only take it one day at a time - which has been the main lesson for me in this whole trial - so that's where I'm trying to focus. We'll just keep taking it one day at a time.

Thank you for all your encouraging messages and texts! We're so grateful for all the support and kind words lifting us up. If you have a minute, Aaron would love to see your comments here on the post. I read them to him from your texts and on social media, but he has access to the blog here and would love to read them himself.

In the meantime, for those of you asking, you can specifically pray for: 

• Aaron to continue manage the chemo side effects well - he has another double dose tomorrow and then on Saturday he'll have all three meds on the same day, which could be a doozy.
• That the medicines are working effectively to do their job and condition his body to be ready to receive Jacob's bone marrow next week.
• For restful sleep (for all of us, including Isaac and the kids at home).
• For Jacob (and the rest) to stay healthy through to the transplant - there has been a few random illnesses floating around our house and we really just need all of that to be gone by next week when Jacob comes in for his procedure.