~A Second Chance at Life~

It's official!!  Our little fighter is now on the road to recovery after receiving a bone marrow transplant today!!  We have had a great day filled with fun and excitement as we watched our beautiful baby boy receive a second chance at life.  I woke up feeling like it was Christmas I was so excited :) Everything went according to plan and basically as well as possible.

Our day started with a hospital photographer coming in and taking pictures of Eli.  She was going around the hospital taking pictures of some of the patients and asked if she could take a few of Eli.  We were happy to have him participate!  He was sound asleep but I think they turned out pretty cute.  Around 12:30 Eli's party started!  A bunch of the staff came in to sing, give Eli some gifts and wish him well!

The two toys are from me and Logan (he won't be able to use them for a few months) and the darling blanket, stuffed elephant, teething toys and BMT t-shirt are from the staff :)

Anyone that wants to participate guesses what day they think Eli is going to engraft (when his counts get to a certain point and they know the marrow is making itself at home) and puts their name on that day and a dollar in the envelope.  The winner gets the glory and Eli gets the money :)

 Right after our little party, they quickly got the transfusion started!  Most people think (and we did too before we got involved in the whole process) that a bone marrow transplant is something that happens in surgery but it's actually quite the opposite and very "anticlimatic".  It happens in the room, right at his bedside and it is just put right into his central line.  Eli slept through almost the entire thing which only lasted about 45 minutes.  His blood pressure spiked pretty quick so they gave him some fast acting blood pressure medicine and that did the trick!

He woke up towards the end and was a pretty good boy while everything finished up: 

I waited all day for Eli to wake up enough so I could take some pictures of him but he is getting so many meds that make him sleepy so he has basically been zonked out all day.  I attempted a few and this is what we got:

The real waiting game begins now!  We no longer have to wait to find Eli's typing or find him a match or wait for the transplant to happen.  All we have to do now is wait for the new marrow to find its way into his body and make itself at home.  We will be able to go home when his ANC (absolute neutrophil count) gets to 500 and stays there for at least two days in a row.  500 is still WAY below a healthy persons number but that's when they start preparing us for discharge.  The average day of engraftment is 25-28 days so it will likely be at least a few weeks.  Our main goal continues to be to keep him healthy since his counts are lower than ever because of the chemo and hopefully keep him as comfortable as possible.

Logan and I can't say enough how proud we are of our little Eli and how grateful we are to each and every one of you.  We couldn't be where we are today without all of the incredible support we have received each and every day!

Fight on, Eli!