TRANSPLANT DAY

TUESDAY 25TH MARCH 2008.

At three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon Brendan received his new stem cells. They arrived frozen in liquid nitrogen and were thawed in warm water next to Brendan’s bed. Brendan received two cords which were frozen into 5 small bags. His room was full of doctors and nurses. There were friends and student nurses watching through Brendan’s window. Brendan sat and watched the first bag of cord blood go into his central line. By the second bag he was feeling unwell and went to sleep. He had been given medications so that he did not have an allergic reaction to the cord cells which made him feel sleepy. He also had high blood pressure which is caused by the preservative that the cord cells are stored in. The preservative smells like creamed corn. When you are sitting in his room you can’t smell it but if you leave the room and then walk back in or sit close to Brendan then the smell of corn is very distinctive.

The trolley with Brendan's cord blood cells

The frozen cells

Cells after thawing

Removing the cells from one of the bags

















Injecting Brendan's cells through his central line

Brendan sleeping through the transplant

The cells will take anywhere from 10 to 35 days to engraft. We will know that his marrow is engrafting because there will be a rise in his white cells. Brendan is now very susceptible to infections and complications and is becoming more unwell each day. He refuses to eat, so is now relying on naso-gastric feeds and nutrition which is run through his central line. He is beginning to show signs that mucositus is a problem. Mucositus is ulcers in the mouth, throat and gut. They are extremely painful and cause a lot of distress in children. He will be started on morphine today to help with the pain. Brendan is very weak and wobbly and is sleeping a lot. He still has enough energy to boss around the doctors when they come to visit in the morning.

One of Brendan’s doctors is looking into sending Brendan’s DNA to the USA for testing for some new periodic fevers that have been discovered. There is no guarantee that his fevers will not return after the transplant. Having an answer will mean that he can be given the right medication to stop the fevers. We would really like to see him off the steroids as they have so many long term complications. It would also be nice to have an answer to his unexplained fevers especially as there is no guarantee the fevers will stop after the transplant.

Brendan has the most amazing machine unit in his room. It looks and sounds like a space ship. All Brendan’s drugs, nutrition, blood products and fluids are pumped through machines attached to the unit. The unit is so big that you need to turn it sideways to fit through a doorway.

Overall Brendan’s doctors are happy with his progress. He sleeps when he needs to and plays electronic games when he has the energy.


From now on, I will talk about Brendan on the blog using numbers. The day Brendan received his cord blood cells is described as day zero the next day is day + one each day post transplant is counted. Day + 100 is a very special milestone to a transplant child and their family. It is a major step towards recovery and one we hope to be celebrating in 98 days time.

Congratulations to Shaun and Danielle (Shaun is Brendan’s special friend who is also his Camp Quality companion) on the birth of their beautiful daughter Lana. We all look forward to meeting her.

Love to everyone
Cheers from Anna, Richard and Brendan.