Day -12 (updated)

UPDATED:

Rachel has finished her first round of Campath, and has had a spike in fever. That is to be expected, but they will do a chest x-ray and also are giving antibiotics. She is achy and has a bad headache. She has also had one round of nausea. They gave her something like Benadryl to keep her from getting a rash/hives, which is another side affect from the Chemo so she is sleeping at the moment. Please keep praying that she will not feel the affects of all the harsh meds she is getting and that she will be able to sleep through some of the pain/nausea.

Some of you have asked about how to get in touch with us. We can now use our cell phones in the hospital room (yea!) and you can also email us at followrachelsjourney@yahoo.com. This is also posted in the sidebar of this blog.

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ORIGINAL POST:

We arrived this morning around 7am and got Rachel admitted into the hospital. Then we went up to the the bone marrow transplant unit(BMT) on the 5th floor so we could put our things in the room and they could get a height and weight on Rachel. Then it was back down to the 2nd floor where we were to wait until they called Rachel back to get her central line. They called her back to the prep room where they had to put an IV in for the pain meds and they got it right in the first time! Then they took her to the OR to put in the central line. During that time I went and got my parent pass ordered. This is a card that has the parent's picture and it activates the doors to the unit so I can come and go in and out of the unit easily. Any other visitors have to pick up the phone for access into the unit.

At this moment Rachel is receiving meds to help prevent side effects from the Campath-1H that she will be receiving in about 15 minutes. This is the first drug in the 12 day protocol leading up to transplant day which is day 0. So today is -12 in the process. Many people have asked me if Rachel can receive flowers and the answer is no flowers or live plants and also no latex balloons. The mylar kind of balloon is fine. There seem to be no other restrictions on what she can receive. Here are a few pictures of the room. We did get one of the larger rooms.