HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HECTOR!!

Roxy's Rooting for Hector too

Hi All,

I wanted to let you all know that Hector sailed through his bone marrow/stem cell transplant without any problems....so far. He was asleep most of the hour it took for the bag 'o stem cells to be dripped into his PICC line...very non-invasive. The transplant was done at 1:30pm yesterday (Wed) right here in his hospital room. The Nurse even sang, "Happy Birthday" to him after it was over, as he was given new life with this transplant. It was a very touching moment. His brother and perfect-match stem cell donor, George, sat in a chair for 7 hours on Tues. in order for them to collect the stem cells. His procedure was much like a platelet donation, where the blood goes out of his body, the machine collects the stem cells, then returns the blood back to his body...another non-surgical and non-invasive part of this organ transplant process. They needed 5 million cells and George gave a whopping 24 million! Now THAT'S some kind of bro!


The next couple of weeks are particularly critical, as his blood counts will be extremely low and the risks of infection and rejection ("Graft v. Host Disease") are very real. However, his doctors don't foresee Hector to experience very many problems, particularly because of the way he has tolerated all of the stuff they have thrown at him so far...he truely is a stud!


By 3 weeks, his counts should be coming up and we may even be able to get out of this hospital room by mid-December. The City of Hope has apartment-style bungalows on campus that we will be able to stay at, in our first steps out of the hospital...and then it's all up to how well things are progressing to know when we'll be able to actually go home. It is after 100 days from the transplant date that the doctors will consider Hector to be on a maintenance program...whatever that may be.


I have been reading all of your encouraging and funny emails to Hector and he enjoys that a lot. Who knew we had so many GREAT family and friends?! We surely appreciate all of your positive thoughts and prayers...Hector is doing so well, even though this is no picnic by any stretch of the imagination, he is getting by one day at a time and determined to get this behind him. And now look, after 2 long months of preparation, we are at Day +1 already. We are bouyed by your love and support, that's for sure!

Much Love, Claire