Day 0

Today Derek got his stem cells back. It is quite a process. His stem cells were frozen in multiple bags so today he got 6 bags of stem cells back. There was one person who would unfreeze the bags, another who would check the numbers and make sure Derek was getting his cells back, one nurse who was hooking up the bags to his iv, and another person logging everything. Once the cells are unfrozen the cells need to make it into Derek within a few minutes otherwise the cells may be damaged. With a couple of the bags the line would get clogged and they had to hurry and get them back into Derek. With the cells come a cream of corn smell. They said Derek's breath and urine would smell like cream of corn but his entire body smells like it to me. My whole house smells like it really strongly. While getting the cells they are still cold so they can give you a cough and they did give Derek a bad cough and started throwing up. He was too weak to hold his own barf bucket so I had to hold it for him. I told him that's love when someone holds your barf bucket for you! He was in a lot of pain. I have never seen Derek look so sick, its definitely hard. I can't imagine what he is going through. I have to take his temperature multiple times a day to make sure he isn't getting an infection, I have to monitor his medication, and force him to eat and drink. He is too sick to do much on his own. His special diet has started. We appreciate everyone's love and support but we now have to limit our visitors. If you are healthy enough and you do come over you will be asked to wash your hands as soon as you come in. From this point he is only going to get sicker before he gets better.