Rachel's Excellent Adventure: Day 0 Transplant Day

Yesterday we got the word that transplant was to be at 10pm last night, however it didn't actually occur until 12:15 am on August 8, 2009. The nurses came in and I took some pictures of the marrow. They said some marrow is almost clear, some kind of brown and some red...and this one was red. When the marrow goes in it is not put through the IV pump like the other meds. It goes in her central line, but the rate that is goes in is not monitored, it is just a gravity thing. They let it go in fast. The nurses said there can be some temporary side effects from this ...high blood pressure is one of them. I got a few pictures right at the beginning and just about a minute after the last picture things got intense. All of the sudden Rachel said she was having trouble breathing. Her nose was stopped up and even through her mouth she felt like she couldn't breathe well. Then she said her chest hurt....she rated the pain 8 out of 10 with 10 being the worst. Her blood pressure went up. That continued for the rest of the transplant...which took between 15-18 min. During this time she was also nauseated and was throwing up. At this point the doctor was in the room and they were prepared to give her oxygen if she needed it. He was asking her all kinds of questions. Finally when the transplant was over the chest pain started to subside, but she then got bad stomach cramps and she was doubled over with those. She was able to get some morphine to help with those and was then able to sleep.

Another thought about the donor. I forgot to mention in the Blessing Ceremony that there was a paragraph about the donor as well and I want to copy what it said:

"We are thankful for Rachel's donor: for the love, compassion and courage to share with Rachel the life-giving cells that are deep within their body. This act of loving-kindness will be remembered and carried within our hearts. When the marrow has been harvested, may the soreness that they may feel ease quickly and may their own marrow be swiftly replenished."

Please remember the donor as she is recovering from this wonderful thing she has done for Rachel