Hi everyone! It’s Mayumi. I’ll try to post things here and there for Jason while he is working hard for recovery.
October 7, 2011
Today is the day. The donated marrow was scheduled to arrive Seattle around 7pm.
I checked with Jason few times during the day to see how he was doing. He finished the last round of chemo yesterday, and had been resting most of the day. He sounded tired, but he said he was doing well except he had to go bathroom every 30 min.
I told Ty what was going to happen tonight. Daddy was getting new marrow. Ty said he wanted to come with me. I told him he couldn’t come because it was going to be really late. But Ty insisted to come – I thought he just wanted to watch TV with Netflix which we don’t have at our house, or play with our computer which had been with Jason since he was admitted in the hospital. The real reason why Ty really wanted to go to the hospital with me tonight was to see Daddy’s new blood. DADDY’S NEW BLOOD! How sweet! It was going to happen tonight!
We got at the UW Medical Center around 9pm, of course Ty turned on his TV shows as soon as we got there, and we waited… no news. It was almost 9:30pm, Jason was getting tired, so we turned off the room light, and tried to get some sleep. Nurse Emily came in and out few times checking on Jason’s vital signs and other stuff, but she told us every time she had not heard where the marrow was yet. Finally, around 10:45pm Emily came in and said, “it’s on the way from SCCA, should be here in 10 min.” She gave Jason Tylenol and Benadryl as prep-meds to avoid any reaction with the marrow. The common reactions are rashes, fever, chills, etc.
Even though we were in the dimmed silent hospital room, I could feel our excitement. Suddenly, Ty’s body got tighter and his breathing got slightly faster (he was laying down with me in a small lazy-boy), my heart started to pound, and Jason… too quiet! We didn’t turn on the light, didn’t even move, but quietly confirmed our excitement to each other. “It’s coming!”
11:00pm, Nurse Emily and other nurse came in with 5-6 packs of what looked like blood. They confirmed name & ID numbers with each every bag with Jason’s wrist band. After everything was confirmed, Emily told the other nurse to bring the blue paper… more paper work? A few minutes later, 4-5 nurses showed up in the room with blue birthday card for Jason and started to sing the happy birthday song for him as if we were at having birthday dinner at Red Robin.
We took pictures with the new marrow, carefully checking if there was any clue who or where the marrow was from. Nurse Emily told us that it was from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was collected 7:35am in the morning; the total volume was 809ml. This morning at 7:35am, somewhere in Minneapolis, 44 years old, around 210lb man who happened to be Jason’s perfect bone marrow match went into a painful surgery to give his own bone marrow for Jason.
We saw the marrow slowly going through his IV. Ty was carefully watching the red moving closer and closer to Daddy’s heart. Jason could have reactions to his marrow as soon as it got into his body. Nurse Emily was there to make sure she was ready to take care of any change in Jason’s body if something was to happen. We waited, marrow keep going in. Nothing happened. As soon as we started feel comfortable (about 30min) later, the IV machine started to beep. Nurse Emily came in, checked the IV. It was clogged. “The bone marrow is denser than blood and even with chunks (believe it or not!), blockage and clogs happens”, Nurse Emily said. She flushed the IV line with saline, and the IV machine went silent. No harm for Jason. That repeated every 5-10min.
October 7, 2011
Today is the day. The donated marrow was scheduled to arrive Seattle around 7pm.
I checked with Jason few times during the day to see how he was doing. He finished the last round of chemo yesterday, and had been resting most of the day. He sounded tired, but he said he was doing well except he had to go bathroom every 30 min.
I told Ty what was going to happen tonight. Daddy was getting new marrow. Ty said he wanted to come with me. I told him he couldn’t come because it was going to be really late. But Ty insisted to come – I thought he just wanted to watch TV with Netflix which we don’t have at our house, or play with our computer which had been with Jason since he was admitted in the hospital. The real reason why Ty really wanted to go to the hospital with me tonight was to see Daddy’s new blood. DADDY’S NEW BLOOD! How sweet! It was going to happen tonight!
We got at the UW Medical Center around 9pm, of course Ty turned on his TV shows as soon as we got there, and we waited… no news. It was almost 9:30pm, Jason was getting tired, so we turned off the room light, and tried to get some sleep. Nurse Emily came in and out few times checking on Jason’s vital signs and other stuff, but she told us every time she had not heard where the marrow was yet. Finally, around 10:45pm Emily came in and said, “it’s on the way from SCCA, should be here in 10 min.” She gave Jason Tylenol and Benadryl as prep-meds to avoid any reaction with the marrow. The common reactions are rashes, fever, chills, etc.
Even though we were in the dimmed silent hospital room, I could feel our excitement. Suddenly, Ty’s body got tighter and his breathing got slightly faster (he was laying down with me in a small lazy-boy), my heart started to pound, and Jason… too quiet! We didn’t turn on the light, didn’t even move, but quietly confirmed our excitement to each other. “It’s coming!”
11:00pm, Nurse Emily and other nurse came in with 5-6 packs of what looked like blood. They confirmed name & ID numbers with each every bag with Jason’s wrist band. After everything was confirmed, Emily told the other nurse to bring the blue paper… more paper work? A few minutes later, 4-5 nurses showed up in the room with blue birthday card for Jason and started to sing the happy birthday song for him as if we were at having birthday dinner at Red Robin.
We took pictures with the new marrow, carefully checking if there was any clue who or where the marrow was from. Nurse Emily told us that it was from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was collected 7:35am in the morning; the total volume was 809ml. This morning at 7:35am, somewhere in Minneapolis, 44 years old, around 210lb man who happened to be Jason’s perfect bone marrow match went into a painful surgery to give his own bone marrow for Jason.
We saw the marrow slowly going through his IV. Ty was carefully watching the red moving closer and closer to Daddy’s heart. Jason could have reactions to his marrow as soon as it got into his body. Nurse Emily was there to make sure she was ready to take care of any change in Jason’s body if something was to happen. We waited, marrow keep going in. Nothing happened. As soon as we started feel comfortable (about 30min) later, the IV machine started to beep. Nurse Emily came in, checked the IV. It was clogged. “The bone marrow is denser than blood and even with chunks (believe it or not!), blockage and clogs happens”, Nurse Emily said. She flushed the IV line with saline, and the IV machine went silent. No harm for Jason. That repeated every 5-10min.
By 1:00am in early October 8th, Jason was already asleep because of the prep-meds. Ty was already snoring in the lazy-boy. I was wondering how to move Ty to the car.
It went well for now. Things might change for tomorrow or next week, but it was a good start.
Happy Birthday Jason
FYI: I put Ty in a wheel chair and pushed him to the parking. Ty thought it was awesome.
It went well for now. Things might change for tomorrow or next week, but it was a good start.
Happy Birthday Jason
FYI: I put Ty in a wheel chair and pushed him to the parking. Ty thought it was awesome.
Thank you so much for keeping us connected way out on the east coast. I wish we were closer! I love the part about Ty and the wheelchair, so cool for him. Hang in there my dear, you are so strong and such a wonderful support to your family. We fasted again today for you all, having faith! Love, Taryn
ReplyDeleteThank you for the update. It's nice to know how things are progressing. Thinking of you, Jason and the boys--let us know what you need and how we can help!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne Harrison
God, didn't know it was your birthday, so sorry Jason.
ReplyDeleteEverything you are experiencing now is what I didn't know in my life, what I didn't even try to know, and I'm very ashamed of myself. I always hope you are getting better, and also, really thank you to Mayumi-San for the post.
Ken from Tokyo