Day 0 - To the Guy that Doesn't Even Want One Birthday....

...now he has two!

Jay has never been a big celebrator on his birthday. No big party, presents, cake and especially no singing.  (Just between you and me, he can be just a tad grumpy on his special day).  Get him a giant cookie from Mrs. Fields that he doesn't have to share and he is good to go.  But today's Birthday is different.  In a very real way this is the first day of a new life for us. Hopefully one free of cancer for a long time. Jay will be reborn as the old bone marrow cells die and the healthy stem cells take over.



By the time Jay woke up this morning he was feeling pretty awful.  He jokingly said he was considering calling in sick to the hospital today.  But he received a lethal dose of chemo-therapy yesterday and wouldn't survive too long without the return of his stem cells.  He wised up so off to the Huntsman we went.

The day started about 9 am at the clinic where the preparations were made for the stem cells to arrive about 10:30 am.  The lab finally showed up with the special delivery.   Somehow I  was thinking the container would look a little more space age rather than something made by Rubbermaid, but there they were....the little beauties that will rebuild Jay's blood system.

The stem cells that were collected a few weeks ago have been processed and stored in a sub-zero freezer.  They were brought to the clinic today and will be thawed in a water bath until it makes what the nurse called a stem cell slushie.

The techs carefully unpacked the cells with his cryogenic gloves and got them ready for the thawing process.  Now things are looking a little more Sci-Fi.  The tag was verified by both the nurse and the lab tech to make sure they were giving him the right cells.

Dr. Tantravahi stopped by to check on things.  He had decided that Jay would receive 3.5 million of the almost 9 million cells that were collected.  That will leave enough cells for 2 more transplants if needed.

The cells are stored in three different bags and will be thawed individually since they are only viable for a few minutes.  The first bag took about 15 minutes to feed through his central line.

And here comes the second bag....

...and the third bag is getting ready to go in the water bath.

Each bag was rinsed to get all possible cells into Jay.  If you look carefully you can see the individual clumps of cells in the diluted solution.

The cells are stored in the preservative DMSO that has an unusual odor.  As the cells were being delivered there was a distinct smell of creamed corn.   We brought some wintergreen lifesavers for Jay to chew on to mask the taste and smell but it was pretty strong.  Guess what we are NOT having for dinner tonight......or possibly ever.

The transplant team usually comes in and has a big celebration and sings Happy Birthday when the transplant is done, but Jay was really feeling pretty sick by then so they spared him. Jay really doesn't like to draw attention to himself and that goes double on his birthday.  But he didn't get completely out of a little B-day cheer.

The nurse and his sister Donna sang Happy Birthday to him in sign language.

They actually got a little smile out of the Birthday Boy!

After preparing for about six months for this day it was over pretty fast.  Now begins the long 100-day process of recovering from the events of the past two days.

Happy Birthday Jay.....and many, many more!!

Step by step we'll get there,

Lynn