Day +22

We are 22 days post transplant. Stem cell engraftment typically happens between 14-30 days post transplant. Originally we were hoping we would be on the front end of this range...now we'll take anytime! The doctors aren't concerned yet, but the next 8 days are obviously critical.

All we can do is wait...so we sit patiently waiting for our miracle of complete healing.

I am understanding better what Dr Cavalier our oncologist meant when she said going through a bone marrow transplant will feel like "your life is turned upside down". It was hard to imagine because after years of chemo and many hospital stays our life already felt upside down.

I now understand "life upside down" looks like a complete re-building on every level - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.

While we wait for Sydney's cells, we work on re-building. Physical therapy sessions are daily. Jenson works up a sweat and many tears doing simple things like putting his feet flat on the floor and sitting up by himself for a few seconds.

Yesterday he sat and held his head and body up while leaning back on the couch for a couple of minutes. I told him, "I'm so proud of you! You are getting stronger Jenson." He flashed one of the few smiles of the day.

Emotional therapy comes in the form of the one thing he didn't have in the ICU... control. He gets to decide things like if he wants water, if he wants music or play therapy, and where mommy sits (which is banished to the couch unless someone comes in the room that needs to touch him). His fearful, darting eyes have been replaced by cautious eyes that are gradually de-toxing from a near death experience.

Psalm 116:6
"The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me. Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me."

Kristin