Stem Cell Infusion

Today Noah received his stem cells and all went well.  Lara said it was pretty anticlimactic.  There's been such buildup to this procedure that everyone was prepared for it being really trauamatic but Noah seemed to be able to handle the procedure pretty well.  The stem cells were infused through his tubies so no needles or anesthetic.  I think after everything that Noah has been through that everyone is always expecting the worst.  It just wasn't that bad this time.  Lara said that the one really horrible side effect is that Noah smells really badly but that should go away in about twenty-four hours.  This is caused from the chemo that is left in his body starts to come through his pores.  His body didn't reject the cells and if there was going to be a problem that would usually take place during infusion.  The one bad thing that Noah experienced during infusion is that  he could taste the chemicals when he was being infused and that was starting to make him sick to his stomach.

The other thing that they decided is that Noah's skin rash is probably being caused from the antibiotic that he's been taking.  It is a penicillin derivitive and they changed him to another antibiotic so that the rash should clear up once that medicine is out of his system. It is such a common problem to develop an allergic reaction to penicillin. Fortunately, there are other antibiotics to choose from but now they will always have to keep him away from penicillin drugs.

Sarah and I came up to Scottsdale this morning and Sarah seems really tired so we had a very quiet day with her taking a long nap and going to bed early tonight.  She goes to meet her teacher tomorrow at pre-school.  We will drive back down to Tucson tomorrow so that she can be with her family again.  She will attend pre-school whenever she's in Scottsdale.  It's just not too clear how much she will be here over the course of the next few months.

So that's about it for now.  Noah goes back to the doctor's tomorrow to have all of his counts checked but he should be in pretty good shape over the weekend.  The stem cells should help him to recover pretty quickly.  He is doing better than we expected him to be doing.  We are very grateful for that.  Let's just hope that things keep going like this for a long time.  It's hard to believe that so much has happened in such a short period of time.  Six rounds of chemo, three surgeries and now one mini stem cell rescue is behind him.  There's a long, long way to go but a lot is behind him now as well.

As always keep praying because we need those prayers to keep coming and we do appreciate them.

Much love,  Grandma

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