Transplant Day

Today was the day in which Steve has been preparing for since September. It was amazing to think that Steve's new blood was inside this container. The "gift" that our merciful Lord provided for him by making all of this possible. I'm reminded of the saying "There is power in the blood." As a Christian, I know this refers to the shedding of Christ's blood for us, on the cross.
The power to save us from our sins and the gift of eternal life with our God in heaven.

But there is also power in our blood, given to us from God, life. With out this new blood, Steve would not have life. God gave Steve enough stem cells for this transplant and all of them were given back to him today. Thank you Father!

Here the nurse's are comparing his name, birthdate and ID number on his wrist band to the labels on the 3 bags of stem cells pulled out of the container.

Here the nurse is thawing the frozen stem cells in a vat that has been prepared and heated to the correct temperature. The room began to smell like creamed corn due to the preservative they add to the stem cells before freezing. Steve's body will emit this smell for the next 24 hours.

And at exactly 11:14am the first bag was hung and connected to the tubing, leading to his picc line.

The nurse had to use a special syringe to hand push the stem cells into the tubing that leads to his picc line. The tubing in the picc line is too narrow for the stem cells to "drip" through.

And now we wait. We wait for the stem cells to find their way into the bone marrow, graft and begin making new blood cells. This should take up to 10 days and then he will hopefully be ready to go home.

Thanksgiving Eve, we have so much to be thankful for!