Day 0!

 Here we are ladies and gentlemen, Day 0. The long awaited transplant is complete! This morning around 8:00, Jack's nurses began to prep him for transplant (Benadryl, Tylenol, LOTS of IV fluids, oxygen, heart monitor, etc). At 9:15, his cells arrived. The stem cell infusion process took about 30 minutes, and was as simple as hanging two bags on his IV pole. Sometimes, patients feel side effects from the preservative they use to keep the cells viable, but Jack felt pretty great!

Here are some pictures of the process:

Jack's new cells- frozen in liquid nitrogen

Confirmation of the cells

Close up- they are in the red bag!

Jack "getting ready" for his transplant!

Jack getting his new stem cells!

From here, Jack's 100 days begin. There are some differing opinions as to how much longer his hospital stay will be, but we really wont know for sure until we see how his counts progress. A safe bet would be 4-5 more weeks. During this time, Jack will be taking lots of medications- immunosuppressants, anti-virals, anti-fungals, and anti-naseua, just to name a few. The goal is to get him out of here and let his donor's cells take over without incident. We were told that it is VERY common for patients to spike some sort of fever while they recover, so everyone, Jack included, is being diligent about washing hands, cleaning surfaces, etc. Obviously, we all want to avoid anything resembling what happened last hospital stay (pneumonia, flu, strep, etc). After he goes home, he will need 24/7 support for the remainder of the 100 days, just to make sure nothing weird happens. He will need to make daily trips back to Mayo at first, but as he progresses those trips should become more and more infrequent.

While Jack still has a long road ahead of him, it's incredible how far he has come in the last 3 months. He has been diagnosed with AML, gone through 3 rounds of chemo, spent over 60 days in a hospital, battled pneumonia and the flu, achieved a complete remission, and received his donor's stem cells all with a smile on his face and a positive attitude to share with everyone around him!

At the Stem Cell/Marrow registration drive last weekend, we were able to add 150 people to the registry! Thank you to anyone who made it out either as a volunteer, potential donor or supporter. Again, if you missed the event and would like to register, please visit Marrow.org to sign up (there is a link at the top right of the blog). One of the coordinators for  Be The Match has created a promo code that you can enter so that there is no cost for you to join the registry. The code is Jack. If you are not on the registry already and are eligible to join, please consider being added. There are so many patients in need of a transplant, but only about half of those in need will actually receive one. I can't imagine what it must be like to be in their shoes, and to go through all this without that life saving option. Although we may never know if one of the people who signed up this weekend (or will sign up soon) is a  match for someone, it's nice to know that there are 150 more possibilities for patients everywhere. Thank you!