Transplant!!!

So the transplant finally happened!! It was on friday last week June 17th. We were all so excited for it we had a little pizza party and some balloons for Shawns new "birthday". He officially has a new immune system. The actual transplant wasn't really all that exciting. It just looks like a blood transfusion, it goes straight into his port and that was about it. It did look like tomatoe juice instead of blood however. And the type of transplant he needed was stem cells and not direct bone marrow so the donor simply had to go into the doctors office for a few blood draws/collections and that was it for him, then they flew it over here. Although we don't know who his donor is we do know that they had to fly it here a few days earlier than Shawn needed the transplant (different time zone). Most of them come from Germany is what we hear because they are required to be on the bone marrow registery in the military. I thought that was really neat, then if they become a match they have the option to so yes or no. We are all anxious to see if somehow Shawn starts to speak German or something crazy like that. Funny thing the donor and Shawn will now technically have the same DNA or at least if either of them commit a crime and leave their blood on the scene both their names will come up as a match to the blood. Crazy huh? So hopefully both Shawn and the donor will not take any jobs asking them to be a hitman:)

So from here on out we just play the wait and recover game. Average recovery time is 4-6weeks in the hospital after a bone marrow transplant. Back in the day this had to be complete isolation from anyone and they would treat the patient standing behind the glass with the gloves thing. But now its different and he is technically isolated but not to that extreme. People can still see him just as long as they are not sick and have not been around anyone that is sick. So I will still be staying with him at the hospital. As long as that little pull out bed remains wide enough for me and my ever growing belly:) Then its about 1-2 years of being really careful about not being around anyone that is sick, and a big list of other precautions. If the transplant "takes" then we will start to see his blood counts recover within 10-28 days. These will be the new immune system making cells since we know they killed Shawns immune system with all the pre-transplant radiation and chemo. And don't ask me what we do next if it doesn't "take" because I'm not allowing that to be an option in my mind right now.

Unfortunately the chemo and radiation side effects have not subsided, and are catching up to him a little more. He now has mouth sores that are pretty painful which have eliminated the pill taking situation. So his feet hurt more again since he is unable to get those medications through the IV. Also the vomitting hasn't let up. It is a sad day when vomitting becomes a normal part of the routine. Especially his vomit, he hasn't eaten in well over a month so you can imagine the throwup he has. Pretty much pure bile and stomach acid. Hopefully in the next week or so we can start getting past all these crappy side effects and Shawn can start being Shawn again. Through all of this Shawn rarely complains about it and keeps up his spirits really well. He has never once asked why is this happening to me... which in itself is pretty remarkable. Thats just Shawn for you, so loving and caring that he cares more about how me and the baby are doing than how he is doing. We had a wonderful Fathers day together and even though Shawn felt really crappy we had a lot of good laughs and talked a lot about how we can't wait until our little Lucas joins our family.

I'll will do another update later, hopefully he will be starting to feel better by then. Thank you all for the continued prayers and support we really appreciate it. Please continue to pray that this transplant works for Shawn and that we can live long and healthy lives with our soon to be son Luke. We love all of you!