Hunter’s Final Stem Cell Injection
Hunter is sleeping away after his 3rd spinal, which is the 5th and final stem cell transplantation. He was given extra medication to get him sedated enough to complete his last injection. He fought them hard so he had additional shots to calm him enough for the IVs and transplant. He was on a monitor to keep up with mainly his heartrate but they are also checking his vital signs periodically. His heart rate was holding steady in the upper 80′s, lower 90′s so they were able to unhook him from the monitor. He is still receiving fluids. He will get around 4 bags of saline since he hasn’t been able to eat or drink since breakfast. When we got our lunch which was McDonald’s yet again, he got the bag from the dresser and was digging in there trying to locate his lunch. When he was unsuccessful at that he found a sippy cup that had a swallow of milk and I had to trade him for an empty one. Hunter wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink for 6 hours prior to the procedure because it was too dangerous. He has been stuck a total of 21 times due to IVs, attempts to insert IVs, lumbar punctures (spinals), a sedative shot, and a blood draw. Hopefully he won’t have any more sticks for the rest of our time in China. They had a team of 5 nurses to put his IV in today and they had to go get Kitty from the 18th floor who was Hunter’s nurse when we first arrived to put the IV in. Thank God for Kitty she got the IV the first time every time with Hunter. Before the treatment, the doctors came in this morning and Hunter is responding to the LED-like light and doing well. Remember we leave Thursday as do Carl and Paul who I have been corresponding with through e-mail since before either of us had made it here so lets pray for a safe return and for continuing of progress for he and Hunter along with all the people here who have travelled from several other counries. Thanks for your support and comments. I will update this blog before we leave and will continue to post his progress when we get home for those of you who want to keep up with the little guy.
5 comments January 28th, 2008
