Transplant Day!!

Today was Cael's transplant! It has been 3 months and 3 days since we first took him to the hospital because he was having problems breathing. We never would have imagined that he had RSV, para influenza 3, and pneumocystic pneumonia, let alone SCID. Thankfully the doctors listened to us and his medical history and were able to figure out what was going on.

The transplant itself was very unexciting. They hung a bag of fluid that had the cells in it which was given to him through his IV. It took only 30 minutes, and it was done! That simple. He seems to be having some sort of allergic reaction to something. His tummy is very red, but his shoulders and arms are fine. He is also red in his elbows, behind his knees, and at his hair line. They think it might be an allergy to the preservatives in the cells, since they were frozen and required preservatives to keep them viable. He has gotten some extra benadryl and hydrocortisone to help, but he still is very red. Hopefully that will go away through the night. The preservatives also have caused him to smell like creamed corn. lol. It sounds so strange, but his breath smells like that now. The nurse said it last a couple days, but it will go away.

The breathing treatments have become a bit of a nightmare. Cael woke up at 4:30 AM and was just screaming and screaming. I think it is because he was still in the box. The only way to calm him down was to pick him up and let him lay with Adam or me. Once the treatment started at 6:00 AM, I had to stand next to the crib and lean into the box and kind of hold him and bounce him until he fell asleep at 7:00. The box he was in this morning was big enough for him to fit entirely into. Later in the day we switched to a small box that is just big enough for his upper half. That way we can kind of hold him while he is in the box, without having to be inside of it. It seemed to sort of work. He only screamed for 10 minutes instead of an hour, while Adam just had his hands on him. So we will try this way out and see if it works better. Fingers crossed! I just hate to see him so upset and listen to him scream so much. He is uncomfortable enough just going through chemo and not eating, so to add this breathing treatment is just more torture for him.

Now it is the waiting game. We have to wait for the rest of his cells to die off and the new cells to engraft. It should take 2-3 weeks to see some results. Until then, we just wait and wait.

His Grace Foundation was awesome today! Because Cael got his transplant today, Adam and I got a feast for dinner from Jason's Deli. We got pasta, a sandwich, a 1 pound baked potatoe, broccoli soup, veggie soup, 2 fruit bowls, and strawberry shortcake! So yummy. We will have plenty for leftovers for at least 2 or 3 meals. It is so nice to have them helping out with some things and providing nice treats like the dinner they got us today.