Day 0 Transplant day
- Mark Rye
- Dec 28, 2016
- 4 min read
And here we are the day of reckoning, my rebirth and the start of the rest of my life. Naturally I am mixed full of emotions, nervousness, excitement and not least seeing my white bloods cell being brought back to life and returned to there rightful owner.
I slept remarkably well as there were no iv machines or tubes connected along with no other disturbances throughout the night. I was woken this morning for my routine full bloods, anti sickness iv and steroid drips, tablets and medicines, weight, blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar readings, all of which were good and normal. Breakfast was relaxing with a nice fresh mug of Brazilian Bobo black coffee courtesy of Driftwood coffee shops freshly supplied ground coffee "Thanks guys” and the ritual marmite on brown toast. Then it was in with the cleaners to sort out my room and give it a deep sterile clean in preparation of the arrival of my stem cells and transplant team.
10 am arrived and I had been sitting deep in thought looking at the pictures of my boys on the window contemplating the journey so far, thinking the distance I had come, how many people had been involved and that today is the beginning of the rest of our lives - as Olivia said. So many emotions were running through me but I had no worries or concerns about the actual transplant procedure as the entire team of staff here had always been on point with me and never left me out of the loop. What else could you ask for? After all, they even knew exactly what time and how much i had to pee and by when… and they told me up front just for a laugh?
By 11am I had been dosed up with various pre transplant medications, my stem cell transplant cauldron had arrived and I was being given a full, clear and concise brief on what possible side effects or reactions could happen within the first 10-15 of the transplant procedure starting. There was an emergency team of varying specialist Haematologists ready with adrenaline and antidote serums outside the room and my transplant charge nurse with me inside through the transplant taking observations every 5 minutes, keeping me updated and topped up with my two very special bags of stem cells. What did I have to worry about?
At 1140 my two bags of stems cells were taken out of the ice cauldron and cross checked to make sure they were actually mine? Would have been funny though if they hadn’t been? Then it was on with the defrosting. Each bag was individually laid in a water bath and massaged like a king to bring them up to the correct temperature before the outside of the bags were meticulously cleaned and then hung up on the iv stand to be manually infused. I felt like royalty. Then at 1146 as the first drop of salmon pink coloured stem cell travelled down the PICC line and entered my body, i was being reborn. I cannot explain the wave of emotion that came ever me… and yes there were tears - of joy!
The whole transplant took around an hour where I was then left to chill, relax and take stock of what had just happened. Thought the morning had been receiving texts and calls from friends, family and the MSchievuos Team wishing me luck and best wishes for today but just had to ignore them. I had to deal with today in my way, without any distractions, get through it and then call Olivia and the boys first which happened. Both boys were sitting in there highchairs eating lunch and I was treated on FaceTime by two huge waves and kisses from them both, neither had a clue what had just happened to me though. They were too excited in eating Olivia’s cottage pie and peas and seeing me whilst eating to worry about anything else and quite right too.
By 1330 I was so exhausted. You don’t think that you are actually doing anything until you realise what the inside of your body is going through and how hard it is working, so I just had to sleep. It wasn’t long before I was woken again for my regular antibiotics and observations before crashing out again for just another hour.
Dinner came and went (naturally) and I thought now was the right time to brain dump everything and tell you about the biggest day of my life (other than the birth of my two children and my wedding day), but this tops it all.
What happens now…? Well as I approach the neutropenic stage where my white blood cells hit zero and means I wont even have the immune of a conceived baby, I need to be aware of how my body is working or not. Everything from a small change in temperature, a scratchy throat or cough, mouth ulcers (mucositis) of which I need to regularly mouth wash with saline water every hour, nausea and vomiting to nutrition decline, fluid overload (not likely now ha ha) or in worse case scenario transplant related mortality. The risk of infection is highly likely as my body will be fighting its self in its own little turf immune war, so keeping on top of personal hygiene, mouth washes and alerting the staff of any minor changes are vital and the next 7 - 10 days in isolation will not only be challenging for me from a mental capacity but also in trying to help assist my body as much as I can to be infection free.
So finally before I disappear for a large Jack Daniels (I wish) I want to thank you for taking time to read todays post. This has been the hardest day for me mentally and emotionally but I wanted to try and be as open and honest about the whole experience and allow you the chance to get into my mindset and be part of the start of a new beginning for me.
Enjoy the videos and pics…
Mark xx
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