Bone Marrow Transplant Day!

Hello dear friends,

Well Well Well, what a day!! Welcome to the blog and to the beginning of
Phase III - The Bone Marrow Transplant Day.

Thanks so much for the wonderful txt messages, calls and comments we have received today, we are truly humbled. We would like to welcome all the new bloggers to the site and thanks for all of your prayers, love, positivity and great feedback.

Its 9.20pm, the Bone Marrow Transplant is now complete and I have to say, it's been an incredibly calm day. We have been rather emotional and now feel absolutely shattered tonight.

Well now, this morning was great. Phoebe has been incredible and she was a little quiet in herself and just wanted some cuddles which of course is plenty!!!. She managed to eat a little breakfast and then we gave her a bath which was much calmer than yesterday. She wasn’t too keen on the bath today, but it’s important to keep her skin clean due to the fact that she's now immunocompromised. It wasn’t long before Mum and Dad arrived and, aaah they brought a dozen Bacon and Cheese Oatcakes with them…what more can I say!!!

Come mid-morning we started to receive all the lovely txt messages from you guys, thanks so much, it's great reading them. It really does mean so much to hear and feel all the support from you all.

Phoebe received a lovely parcel in the post today from Faye, Ian, Henry and Chloe and she was really pleased with her new tea set. In fact she’s been making us cups of tea all day!!! Thank you so much, that was really thoughtful of you guys, and thanks for all your advice and support having been through it yourselves. A special hello to Henry and Chloe too; glad you are both enjoying the blog and we look forward to meeting you all soon!!

Even though Phoebs was quiet she really enjoyed her lunch and seemed to have a good appetite. I think it helped sitting on Nana’s knee wrapped in cuddles. Gary came to see us all today; it was great to catch up and I know he really wanted to give Phoebs a hug but as we are now in isolation. She was really pleased to see him and gave him a lovely smile through the window.

Dr. Newton popped by the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit to see us on a social visit today. He is a Neurological specialist who initially looked after Eleanor and it was lovely to see him again for the first time since February 2005. Although he too was pleased to see us I think he was pretty devastated that Phoebe has also been admitted here. He is a very inspiring chap who once told us we needed strength, courage and patience and we still heed those words today, especially for the road ahead.

Dr. Trevor Carr came to see us around 2.15pm to inform us that the stem cells had arrived at Manchester train station and were en route! When they arrived Trevor took them off to his lab. and we were told that the transplant would begin a little later on in the afternoon. All of our consultants and doctors came to see us today, reassuring us of the next few steps.

After Trevor had prepared the stems cells we were told that there were more red blood cells within the harvest than was ideal. Consequently, it was decided to infuse the transplant over a longer period of time with plenty of fluids. Maged, one of our consultants (pictured here with Phoebe), is great at simplifying things and he gave us a good analogy…. it’s like being given an extra strong mug of tea with 50 sugars in it and being asked to drink it in 5 mins. - not nice or good for you! However if you were given 3 hours to drink it then it would be far easier for your body to cope with and dilute.

The decision came to infuse the transplant over 3 hours (we were told that transplants last between 20 mins. and an hour on average) and all the of the doctors were confident and ready to deal with whatever obstacles may have arisen.

We were now ready to go and Rachel looked after Phoebe during the transplant and stayed with us throughout taking obs. every 5 to 10 mins. She made us feel at ease and confident in her care. I have to say, quite a number of staff were with us when it first started and there was a real rush of adrenalin, especially when Trevor asked me if I would like to press the button to start the procedure. From that moment we both felt really emotional; it has been one surge after another and this left us quite drained tonight.

Dr. Trevor Carr (Consultant Clinical Scientist) in preparation

The new stem cells start their journey!

Dr. Rob Wynn (Director, BMT) pops in to see us during transplant

The last of the stem cells enter the IV line

Phoebe has been amazing throughout this journey and we hope and pray with all of your help that she will rest tonight and allow her body to relax and accept the new stem cells. Its now 22.38, Phoebe has settled off and she's being monitored very closely. She now has a temperature and she will now start on a course of antibiotics, we await the blood results tomorrow. [Ade here with a quick update for those of you out there worrying. Phoebe's temperature had subsided to a very comfortable 36.2C by midnight.]

Denise, love your questions…. Ade has one for you…..Why Parsnip?

We would like to give a special mention to Liz Scott, well done to you for becoming a blogger hey…what next!!!!! Thanks for all your prayers Liz and I would like to extend this thanks to all the schools where Phoebe has been included on their prayer list, we are incredibly humbled.

Thanks so much to all of you again for all your incredibly supportive messages of love, prayers, hope and encouragement.

'To believe in an Angel is to acknowledge that life is more than what we see. It is a step toward seeing reality’

Wishing you all a peaceful night.

For now dear friends……

With love xxxxx