Transplant Day (Day 0)

Today's the big day. She finished her 9th and final round of radiation earlier this morning, had some food and is now getting prepped. She's had a few extra visits from the nursing staff prep her for the transplant, which includes a few extra prep-meds, a review of some of the things she'll need to help reduce the chances of infection, and a prep of the main line that will be used for the actual transplant. They were aiming to being around 12:30pm, but it feels like we're running a little late. The stem cells haven't arrived to this unit yet, so we're in a bit of a holding pattern. Everything happens right in her room, so I'm able to be there the whole time. They hook her up to all the vital sign monitoring machines (ie. heart rate, blood pressure, etc) for the entire process and have one of those crash carts on stand by right outside of the room, just in case.
 
12:25pm update: Nurse just popped her head in to say the cells have arrived on the floor. Nurses now doing prep stuff outside the room. Bag is apparently "fresh", not frozen... which is good as the frozen stuff has an additional chemical to preserve it.
 
12:30pm update: Bag and the nursing staff have arrived. Looks like a tiny bag of blood. Amazing that something so simple can save a life. Doctor staff is reviewing the numbers to ensure everything is right, and they are in process of hanging the bag of stem cells.
 
12:32pm update: Process starts. Amazing. I had this fear that this donor was going to get run over by a bus or the cells would be involved in a plane crash or something. So happy that it's actually here. Doctor made a point of saying she was "very happy with the product". I didn't completely understand the medical explanation why... had something to do with it being fresh and the quantity. As long as the doctor's Happy, I'm happy. That's good enough for me today.
 
12:47pm update: Everything is cruising along. We expect this process to go for about an hour. The nurse today is fantastic. The nurses over here in general are good at what they do, but the one today is great. She's really making Anna feel comfortable.
 
1:30pm update: I'm guessing we're a little more than half way through. Anna's taking a nap. Some of the pre-meds can make you pretty sleepy. All in all, pretty anticlimactic thus far... but boring is good when you are going through something like this.
 
1:50pm update: Transplant process is done! Woo hoo! Everything looks good. She's pretty sleepy, but is going to try to eat a little lunch. I just posted some new info on donating blood to help Anna's recovery. Please check it out!
 
6:45pm update: She's doing great. She was up and moving and went for a walk earlier. Exercise and eating are really the two best things for her at this point, so we try to encourage both of them. She's been a little feisty this afternoon... kinda like her old personality... that had subsided a bit when she was feeling beat up... didn't expect it back so soon... oh well, i guess it's still a positive sign :)
 
She'll have a tough week ahead of her. The chemo and radiation from last week have a cumulative effect, and tend to take a few days before they really set in. She'll probably have a low around Wednesday of the coming week, and then we really start rebuilding. At this point, they are starting to build her back up, so she'll be on the upswing soon.
 
Thanks everyone for your support!