Happy belated Birthday to Joe!

Just a quick little update. I'll write more later...

Joe had his transplant yesterday. It was really incredbile. They hooked him up to a bunch of monitors. Out came a little bag with 251 mL of cells. The bag was hung. Fourteen...FOURTEEN MINUTES later, Joe had new cells floating around his body knowing exactly where to go. Joe was closely monitored for an hour after the fourteen minute transplant. All was well. He then had to continue to receive IV fluids for an additional 3 hours. After all was said and done, it was getting late. Joe could have been discharged, but since we have to be at the hospital every morning at 8am for thirty days anyway, he decided to stay another night.

Well, this morning, Joe's stomach was bothering him a bit more than usual. He was sent to get a CT scan. Apparently, he has some inflammation in his colon. Things like this are to be expected as his counts continue to go down. They were still going to let him go home. But then after the bigwigs discussed some more, they decided that they would like Joe to stay a little longer just to be safe. So, my dear Joe is still in the hospital. He's not too thrilled about being here yet another day. Who would be? But Joe is staying strong.

One more note, Joe received over 70 cards as of the time of his transplant yesterday. It came in two waves. Each delivery, the lady would go, "I can't believe it!" So much love for Joe!!!!

Thank you to Susan N. for telling everybody about the West Penn card site!
Thanks to Sheena for hanging out with me the other night.