Day -0 BIRTHDAY!!!

Nurses Ben and Mahmoud checking the cryo-tank temperature. It's at a chilly -286 degrees BELOW ZERO!

The stem-cells being lifted out of the cryo-tank.

Nurse Ben hanging the thawed-out stem-cell mixture from the IV stand

I thought the color contrast was cool- that's blood on the left and the stem-cell mix on the right.

That's all there is to it!

Birthday Presents #1

Birthday Presents #2

Well, today was the big day! All went very good with no ill side effects so far. They started the bone-marrow stem-cell infusion at about 2:00pm and it took nearly an hour. The stem-cells were brought up in a big cryo-tank that looked like a garbage can. The cryo nurse took out 3 of the 6 bags of cells for transplant and thawed them out, one at a time, just in room temperature water. The cells were still cold (and a bit slushy) when infused. The bags of cells were just administered through his IV system. A bone marrow transplant sounds so scary but it's really just a glorified IV bag! The stem-cell preservative has a bit of a nauseating smell to it. It smells like creamed corn. The nurse brought us in some lemon slices to hold under our noses- it really did help. Ryan's grandparents also came for the event. We had a 'birthday' party afterward with presents and ice-cream sandwiches! Ryan has done amazingly well to this point. His attitude has been so positive. We are grateful for the many prayers that have been answered! Next for him is just hanging out in his hospital cleanroom for the next 2-3 weeks until the transplanted stem-cells take hold and start producing white blood cells again. It's amazing to me that the stem-cells know right where to go and what to do once they get there. Wonderful and amazing!
Just an FYI, you can click on each photo to get a bigger size image.
Steve