Harvest Season

Matthew had a catheter placed surgically in his chest on Friday so that they can harvest stem cells for his transplant. They put him under anesthesia for the procedure, which he was appreciative of. I don't think they're going to put him under when they remove it though, which is really bothering him. On the way home from the hospital, my mom dropped him off at Buffalo Wild Wings for his friend's birthday party. This kid is an animal. The only pain he really took away from the surgery was a sore neck. I guess his head got in the way during the operation, so the doctors yanked it around like it wasn't attached. His neck was so sore that he couldn't lay down by himself. He needed someone to support his head and guide it to his pillow.

One thing that is pretty terrible is his shot schedule. Ever since his last chemo therapy, he has had to get a shot every day. The shot helps his cell counts grow so he will have enough for doctors to harvest and save for his transplant. On Friday and Saturday he got two shots, and yesterday he got FOUR. These shots are the worst because the medicine burns him really bad as it goes in. I hate being in the room when he gets them because he really groans, and you can just hear how painful they are. Our awesome neighbor, Adam Hellmann, has been giving him the shots because my parents really don't want to. He's great for doing that for us, and it's kind of funny because watching the whole process is like watching groundhog day. The scene just repeats itself. Adam comes over, gives T the shots, T says, "You know I really don't appreciate you doing this," and Adam leaves. That exact same thing happens every time. It's the only comical thing about getting the shots. Hopefully he won't have to get more shots tonight...That all depends if his cell counts have come up high enough for the doctors to get what they need though. We haven't heard from his nurses yet today.

Harvesting the stem cells takes hours. I think the process is kind of like donating plasma, because a machine takes his blood, it takes out what is needs, and then it puts the blood back into him. It's not a painful process, but you can tell that he loves it so much...

P.S: Matthew is now, for the first time, completely bald.