Day BMT - minus 7 ...Let me explain.

I forget that most people reading this don't really know how a bone marrow transplant works.  I know I never had a clue about this until pretty recently.  Well, we got a crash course from the Utah Blood And Marrow Transplant Program last week during our "conference" day in clinic.

First off, they track things in days and there's some important numbered dates in the whole process.  The most important day is known as "day zero" because that's the day Jacob will receive his new bone marrow.  Every day before that is a "minus" day and every day after is a "plus" day.  Last friday was Jacob's "minus 7" day.  This friday will be day zero and his Bone Marrow Birthday!!! They make a really big deal about that birthday here and they were very clear in explaining to us that any kid who has to go through this deserves an extra birthday celebration - every year, not just this year ;o) Okay... we will be thrilled to celebrate his BMT birthday every year for a very very long time!!! ...even though we already have 6 other birthdays to celebrate with our kids every year, well what's one more - more fun!  We never really made super big deals about birthdays around our house with any of the kids, but after this, we're all gonna treasure birthdays a lot more - for everybody.

Every transplant might be a little different with some using different chemos or different levels of chemo and some need radiation too.  Jacob's schedule is to receive two different types of chemo for 8 days.  The first four days he got Busulfan and the next four he gets Cyclophosphamide.

Busulfan

Cyclophosphamide AKA Cytoxan

Then on day -1 he gets to "rest" from chemo as they wait for it all to clear his system and the next day he gets his transplant marrow from Jericho.  Other medicines to prevent failure are given on specific days "post transplant".  On the day of transplant, everyone (nurses, doctors, all the staff, family, friends...anyone involved) places their "bet" for which day the new marrow will "graft".  They gave me a hint and explained that most transplants graft somewhere between day 14 and 28.  That's a pretty wide range...but go ahead and place your bet :o) We'll keep ya posted.

The other question I get a lot is how it will affect Jericho to donate marrow for Jacob.  Well, thankfully for him, he will be asleep during the process.  The surgeon will puncture Jericho's hip bone in the back because that's where the greatest volume of bone marrow is found.  They will pull out only as much marrow as would be safe for Jericho through a long needle and collect it for Jacob.  They move the needle and pull out more several times until they get enough.  It sounds really bad and painful, but he will be asleep during the process and the whole thing is usually an outpatient procedure. Most kids go home the same day they donate. Also, the younger they are, they say the kids recover quicker.  He will be sore in his hips for a little while and he'll be a little tired over the weekend.  He might ache a little and he'll for sure get some special treatment and extra ice cream.  In just a few days, they expect that he will be up and running around like nothing ever happend and in a week or two, his body will completely replace all the marrow he gave.

As young as he is, Jericho understands that he is going to do something very special for Jacob.  He tells everyone that he's "Jacob's match" and he's very proud of that! I've tried to explain to him as well as I can how it's all going to work and what it's for, but who knows what he really understands.  He just knows that he has special blood that is going to make Jacob better! -and that's pretty cool if you ask me.