Happy New Birthday

 While waiting for the transplant today, Tony got a foot massage. She did a lot of reflexology stuff and Tony was really impressed. 

The transplant started at exactly 3:11 and was finished by 3:20. We were all shocked. Transplants are very different now then they were 10 years ago. 

Here are a few of the differences:

Ten years ago Tony was given 14 large syringes of stem cells (3 million cells) over 2 1/2 hours. The marrow had been harvested from his donor by making between 50 and 100 punctures into his lower back and drawing out the marrow, and then separating out the stem cells. 

These pictures are from ten years ago.

Now, what happened today. The donor was given a neupogen shot to help his body produce more stem cells and shove them out into the blood stream. Then he did a procedure similar to dialysis. They drew blood from one arm, spun the stem cells out, and then put the blood back into the other arm. Then they gave Tony 102 ml (millions of cells) in a small IV bag. It took less than 10 minutes. These pictures are from today. 

Afterwards, the nurses came in and sang Happy Birthday to him and gave him a gift. 

Now he'll have 3 birthdays. His real one is in 2 weeks. His 1st new birthday is December 12th. And now he has a third on February 7th. 

Tony's feeling pretty good still, but the Doctor said this morning he'll start really feeling the effects in 3 days or so.

Fun fact: Tony's donor is a different blood type than him, so his blood type will switch over to the donors.