Day -1

We can’t believe that it’s this close to transplant day. Lots of last minute things today. We had thought that our room had been "transplant cleaned" but it turns out that they clean it one more time, dowsing everything in Chlorox. So early this morning, we had to pack up everything from the room, take a very sleepy and under the weather Chloe and move to a temporary space for about an hour. All in the name of clean, so we go with the flow.

Chloe slept a lot today and you can really see that she is feeling all the stuff they are pumping into her. She is a trouper as always, rarely complaining, but all that bubbly, engaging, happy baby is overwhelmed by feeling bad. We’re told it will be like this for the next 7-10 days or more. She is so tired that most of her meals are coming through the G-tube, but that works well because we can feed her very, very slowly to minimize the nausea and vomiting.

Today is the last day of chemo. Chloe got another dose of blood today as well. The transplant should take place around lunchtime tomorrow and is basically like a blood transfusion as well.

We try to do a lot of laughing here in her room, even while she is sleeping so she knows that everything is OK.

An interesting note, we realized today that since her first blood transfusion on Monday, we don’t think she’s had any seizures. They have disappeared completely. Even through the high fever (which often worsens seizures). Of course we’re crossing our fingers that this change is permanent, but no one can really explain it. It’s probably an outcome of the volatile cocktail of medications she’s on.

By the time most of you read this, the transplant will probably be complete. Please know that Dennis & I are so very grateful for all your thoughts, prayers, encouragement and support. We know that the coming days could get much tougher and, as always, knowing so many people out there care about Chloe really lifts us.

Tomorrow begins the next chapter in Chloe's eventful life.