Day +10: Double Figures

We're one-tenth of the way to the magic number.

When I wrote on the white board this morning, I hadn't expected the number "10" would have such a huge impact on me. It'd been 10 days since the cord blood transplant, and I was a bit disbelieving at how quickly the last 10 days have flown.

10 days since the most precious 30mL of cord blood containing little miracle stem cells were injected into our little boy's body. 10 days since those little stem cells had been running freely inside Sean's body and trying to find all the right places to engraft and grow. 10 days of Sean gradually becoming sicker, and losing his appetite, and getting more drugs.

The magic number is 100. 100 days post transplant. 10 days down, 90 to go.

Day +100 is usually the marker to gauge whether the transplant has been successful. Most complications post transplant happens in the first 100 days. Complications such as infections and Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD) are quite common in transplant patients, but there are steps to mitigate these things, both in hospital and when we get home.

10 days in, and Sean was showing signs of slowing down in mobility. Sean celebrated this mini milestone with long and frequent naps during the day. He was much much much more clingy and miserable today, and took exception to the nurses who came in and out of our room all day to look after Sean and monitor his progress.

Whereas Sean had been happy to play and flirt with the nurses, today wasn't one of those days. Every time any of the nurses came near Sean, he started crying. The nurses had a hard time trying to do their jobs - taking Sean's temperature, checking Sean's blood pressure, listening to Sean's heart rate. The second any nurse walked towards Sean, the corners of Sean's little mouth would turn down, the bright little eyes would screw tightly shut, and the most pitiful wail would escape from the depths of Sean's being.

Early in the day, the doctors noted that Sean's haemoglobin levels were very low, which meant he needed a blood transfusion. A young Asian doctor, who didn't introduce herself to me but apparently did to Jonathan, took a peripheral blood sample from Sean to test his cyclosporin levels, which was most distressing for the little man. I was a bit confused and upset, mainly because Sean had had some bloods taken a couple of days ago, and no one explained why he needed to have more bloods taken. I made sure to ask Dr Barbaric when we saw her later in the day.

It came to light that the team had changed the cyclosporin dosage, hence the test to make sure the dosage was doing its job. Whenever the team changes the dosage, a blood test is required to check the levels. It would have been nice for Meme (the aforementioned young Asian doctor) to have explained this to us before bleeding Sean.

Jonathan joked all day long that he was going to head up to the pub and have the biggest steak he could find. And he would go out and bring back the biggest burger to have in front of me. I had to laugh - I didn't care what he ate - I was happy to observe the "no meat" thing on Good Friday, but I wasn't going to force Jonathan to join me.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The Henrys are going to pay us a visit in the morning, and Jonathan has been encouraging me to go out for a nice back massage to ease out all the knots and aches in my back. I think I may have to take him up on this offer. Although I have been lucky enough to have a thicker foam mattress to sleep on while we've been in hospital, it is still not my own bed, and my back is starting to feel the effects.

The wonderful Rita is looking after us tonight, so I know I'll get some uninterrupted sleep tonight. She is a wonder, and I love that whenever she is looking after us at night, none of the machines beep. I am keen to get some sleep - if only Sean was just as willing. The little man had such long naps this afternoon, he's wide awake and not willing to close his eyes. Wonder what time he'll go to sleep tonight?!