Day -1

Today Raul's donor had his bone marrow harvested, and it will be flown over from Europe for Raul's transplant tomorrow! We are very thankful that his donor was willing to donate. Raul's WBC was down to .4 today (ANC not even calculated due to the WBC level), which means the chemo and ATG have been doing their jobs to wipe out his cells for his donor's cells! 

Last night Raul had a high respiratory rate on and off, but his oxygen was okay, so they just watched it. It may have been related to the fevers he later spiked. He was up again from 4-5 with a higher fever and a lot of gagging, but then went back to sleep. 

This morning he actually got out of bed a bit to sit on a chair and play cars! It didn't last too long, but it was good to see him with more energy. I changed his bandages mid-morning, and we noticed that his arms were kind of puffy (his weight was also up a bit), so he got a dose of lasix to help that. 

Around 1:45 they came to take him down for his radiation. He was not happy to be back in the pre-op waiting area, and spent most of the time with his blanket over his face. Luckily he fell asleep while waiting, and never woke up before being sedated. I went back with him to an OR for him to be sedated, and then they transported him asleep down to radiation. They told us he would be gone about an hour, and it took just over 2, so I am guessing there was some waiting somewhere along the way. 

By the time they called us back he was already awake and announcing that he didn't want to stay in that room, he wanted to go up to his room. They got him up quickly, and since then he has felt pretty awful. He has thrown up a lot, and his diarrhea has been worse. These are side effects of radiation, but also side effects of just about all the meds. he has had so who knows exactly what the cause is.

Tomorrow is day 0: transplant day!