Day 1: Pressing On ... With a Little More Effort Required

Well, I didn't get that second blog up yesterday, but it will be worth it. Lorie, my wife, took a video of the transplant process. It was nothing like what you'd expect.

Now I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt!

Rather than try to explain it, let me let you see the short vids, which I uploaded to YouTube :-D. I would have just uploaded them here on my blog, but when I do that, it seems a lot of you can't see them.

Then the next picture is my favorite one from yesterday. Lorie bought a big helium birthday balloon and a dragonfly balloon. She set it up behind me, and we made a party of it, as you may be able to tell from the video, although I'm kind of distracted sending and answering texts back to Rose Creek Village. Jerry was there, too, and you can see him in the first video if you haven't seen him yet. He brought me his favorite Sonic shake, at my request, shortly before the transplant.

Okay, I guess that's two pictures, not one.

After Benadryl

I was a little out of it for a while. Benadryl is part of the pre-transplant preparation, and they gave it to me by injection into my IV line. It took about 3 seconds to hit my brain, and make me half-comatose, though there was enough time between that and the actual transplant for me to be awake enough to enjoy it a bit.

Afterwards, there was really just more sleep to report. The transplant took place from 4:18 to 4:35 or something real close to that. I then basically slept until 5 this morning.

All that sleep let my mouth dry out, and I have a mouth sore now. I did have to get up for vitals and trips to the bathroom, and I rinsed my mouth on every trip with soda and water, often following with a moisturizing gel, but it wasn't enough. The sore's just barely painful, though, so I can't complain. With as many people as are reading this blog, at least one of you is suffering through a much worse mouth sore, I'm sure. I remain a very fortunate, blessed person.

Jerry and Rayetta at the transplant

I got up at 5 am, and I forced myself to have a cup of yogurt. My stomach was really upset, but my experience so far has been that if I keep some food in my stomach, it does okay (assuming it's the right food!). Though I had to force that first bite down, it immediately relieved my stomach. I went and walked, and I found I was still able to do a 17-minute mile. So I biked a little, really slow, but more than a mile, then gently strolled and stretched for about 15 minutes afterward.

I still have more energy than I really ought to. Thank you again for all the prayers!

And for those from Rose Creek Village who sent me soup. I have never gotten so much pleasure out of food in my whole life. They settle my stomach for an hour or two at a time and warm and relax my whole body. They probably drop my blood pressure, they're so relaxing. You have to be mildly sick to appreciate food that way. I can't believe how good those soups have felt.

The transplant cooler

Here's a couple more pictures, just for fun. I'm a very blessed man.

One of the eleven syringes, three from one baby, eight from the other

Katie, the nurse practitioner, with the syringes from one baby

Ellen and Katie getting everything ready