A Celebration

After a patient has a transplant, all the nurses have a little "birthday party" for him, in celebration of the arrival of the new stem cells, and for the patient's bright new start in life. They all come into his room and sing, and present him with a hat signed by the staff, and put balloons on the door.

Jimmy's fever is around 102 degrees today, and because nothing has shown up in the cultures, they finally let him have some Tylenol. Tylenol is avoided in transplant situations, as it can mask infection, but Jimmy can be very persistent, and eventually he wore them down.

He's getting platelets today, but his hematocrit is still high enough that he doesn't need more blood yet. We have switched from Ativan to Compazine for nausea; it appears to be more effective, and he's not as zonked. Feeling rotten is endemic to this stage of the process, so we'll get through it, knowing that Jimmy will be better soon. The transplant team is in support mode as we wait for the stem cells to engraft, which may start in another week.