The fire has burned out leaving very little in it's wake. Some seed, some re-planting and wait for the earth to regrow.Waiting for the return of new, green growth in the scorched ground.
It is day 0, Transplant day, and a day to celebrate. Gil's cells are returned and we wait to see how he heals. This is also the very vulnerable stage as he may react to the preservative used when freezing the cells (DMSO), he has no immune system, and the chemo's effects are going to be at their worst for the next days. Then we wait for engraftment: The process of transplanted stem cells reproducing new cells. This should take 2-6 weeks, during which (and he already started) he takes quite the cocktail of anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial drugs. This engraftment process is very hard on the body...so we'll see what happens next.
Gil has breezed through so far, and I believe things will continue to go well. The hardest part right now is getting proper sleep - with long days laying in a hospital bed, showers and Chlorhexidine gluconate wipe downs, our normal timeline has been a little disrupted. But now it's all healing. Hopefully no more day's at the hospital - just quick check-ups in the morning!
In the meantime, have a party, celebratory run, or whatever...it's another Birthday for Gil!
By the way - had a little fun today visiting at church - I called Gil on my phone and shared a little FaceTime with the staff at TTUMC. That was entertaining!
Forever on my calendar - HAPPY PHOENIX DAY!
UPDATE: My RunVie team did a celebratory run for us - Thanks guys, you all are great!!
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