We’ve been through day -1 and day 0 since I last updated…

Long story short… day -1 was a day of rest for Nathan, no chemo’s or anything like that and I managed to get him out into the healing gardens for some great sunshine and fresh air. As the day went you could tell he was nervous about what was to come but we all did pretty good I think keeping him busy with the help of PT and OT and few others his mind was focused on many things.

Nathan had his marrow donation donated by his Dad, since there was no match for Nathan we did a Haplotype bone marrow transplant. This type of transplant gave Nathan the best chance to kick this, there are some extra risks with this type of process but Nathan waited months for a donor and had no luck the Drs found a treatment that yes put Nathans cancer into remission but it was a temporary thing and because of that Nathan went into transplant in the best condition he possibly could. Nathan’s Dad admitted in the OR Thursday morning prepared to donate, the Drs where thrilled with the amount of cells they were able to harvest from Dad; 2 liters of cells via. bone marrow aspiration. This was sent to be processed which took all day to do for several reasons, 1 being quantity and another being they are 2 different blood types. Nathan received his transplant finally at 9:21pm April 6^th, it ended at 9:57pm. Nathan did well with the feed but had some issues that were not abnormal right after and later through the night. Nathan’s vitals were very active going from high to low and setting off the bells and whistles all night long BUT they both did GREAT.

Dad is home and recouping and Nathan is waiting for the grafting process to begin. There is still more to his process before he can just let it all happen, Nathan needs to have an IVIG infusion and then back onto more chemo, the IVIG is part of the process but the chemo is because Dad and son are different blood types and they need to wipe out the donated T cells so Nathan can receive better and will lessen the severity of grafts vs. host disease, which everyone is at risk of getting in these cases but Nathan’s case and type of transplant raises his chances.

As I sit and type the update, Nathan is sleeping and has been all day Nathan spiked a fever last night which came down today and then right back up and above. The concern is of course infection, but it is also expected to happen with a transplant (your putting foreign matter into his body and it’s responding). Nathan’s counts are falling now and he’s beginning to have chemo effect with his body as well. All in all though Dr says he’s doing well.

Thank you to everyone for keeping my son and family in constant prayers; this is only the beginning of this process, Nathan has a ways to go yet and the days can get much worse before they get better.

Thank you and God Bless!!!!

#myultimatewarriorx3