Happy Birthday!

Today is the day that Lance's stem cells will be reintroduced into his system to rescue his bone marrow which has been destroyed by the high dose chemo. The stem cells should generate brand spankin' new red and white blood cells that are disease free and that will not produce the dreaded amyloid protein, at least not for a long while. The transplant will happen at about 11:00 am, and that time will be akin to the moment his mother gave birth to him back in 1955. Today is Lance's new birthday. There will be no pony rides or cake, but we will have plenty of time for that next year when we celebrate his first birthday on December 13, 2006. More later....

1:00 pm: The stem cell infusion went off without a hitch. Lance is sedated on Ativan and Benedryl and is in and out of it, but he did really well. They infused 2,000,000 stem cells during the procedure. So far, no nausea or vomiting. The nurse practoner who administered the cells said he did as well as could be hoped for. They kept telling him, "Wow, you're doing great, Mr. Carter!" The stem cells resemble a strawberry smoothie and are kept in a preservative that smells like garlic. They told us that Lance's breath, sweat and body may smell like garlic for up to 48 hours and brought him some lemons to smell if the odor bothers him. They infused three large syringes like the one in the picture. The stem cells arrived frozen in the bag they were collected in and are thawed out in warm water before being placed in the large syringe. Lance still has 12,000,000 stem cells in the freezer in case they need to perform future stem cell rescues. This is the team that performed the procedure, which took about 30 minutes. Lance did so well, they gave him the thumbs up! More later.....

10:45....Lance slept most of the day. The Ativan/Benedryl cocktail they gave him for the procedure really put him out. Ruthie and Karen came in for the afternoon as as predicted we watched him snooze. I did get a chance to go off campus out and walk around, but it was very cold and I gave up quickly! When I got back to the room Lance's mom told me they had just given him more Lasix to get more of the fluid off. The gain he made with this over the weekend are now gone. Lances left arm and hand are as swollen as ever. Once again the Lasix started another pee-a-thon, and Lance broke his previous urination world record. He still hasn't eaten, but he had some milkshake and I think might be ready to eat some tomorrow.

We'll call it a night soon. Here's a look at the room with my chair-bed set up. Be back soon.

~Lisa