Today is Hans' Big Day!

Hans received his stem cells today. The whole process was really very quick. It only took about 15 minutes to infuse the two small bags of liquid gold! They had been collected back in early December (they were his own, collected through a pheresis). They were frozen in a preservative and stored at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center. The smell of the preservative is quite strong. We thought it smelled sort of like creamed corn, but then I realized it smells more like Twin City Foods(in Ellensburg) when they are processing corn. It had a strong taste to Hans going in. He almost immediately gagged and threw up when the infusion started. Now we just have to wait for the stem cells to find the bone marrow and set up their blood cell making factory. The doctors told us we could expect to be inpatient about 12 – 14 more days. They will closely watch his blood counts, particularly his ANC – a component of his white count. I couldn’t believe it, it dropped dramatically from 2500 yesterday to about 560 today. Generally, when his ANC is above 1000 they feel he is reasonably able to fight off infection. They expect it to drop to 0 and stay there for about a week plus. During this time Hans will be very susceptible to infection, so we have to be very careful and limit his visitors. We are told that he can go home once it has come back up to 500 or higher for 3 consecutive days. He is also expected to experience one very serious side effect of the chemotherapy - mucositis, which includes painful mouth sores and possible irritation of other mucous membranes.

Hans has still been holding up okay. He has what one doctor referred to as a chemical burn on his diaper area. This is from all the chemicals excreted in his urine. He is using a special aloe-based gel. The burn doesn’t bother him much, except for when I apply the gel. Hans got a bit of a fever yesterday – he briefly hit 101.0. We’re glad it’s back down to normal range. He’s still feeling a bit pukey and not eating much, but he should start on TPN (IV nutrition) by tomorrow. It just seems that when Hans is really sick he just gets very still and quiet – he just gets through it. It’s remarkable to me that he has already developed this effective little coping strategy. Thanks to all of you who are keeping our precious little boy in your thoughts and prayers. Hans’ buddy Patrick has been pretty sick here on the unit. He is finally starting to feel a little bit better now that he is one week out of transplant. I think he could use our prayers as well.

Lara