The marrow arrived at 5:50p.m.

A short young man in a lab coat and a mullet hair cut peered into Trish's door at 5:50 p.m. and walked away. I told Trish I thought the marrow had arrived. A few seconds later her nurse was paged to room 5, her room. I walked to the door and peered out the window. The man indeed had a small cooler in his right hand.

A few more minutes and Josephine, Trish's nurse, and the man walked in with a red bag and new IV lines. They confirmed her ID and the patient information with the marrow. Patricia DiComo, 9 - 6 - 63, medical record number.......

For better or for worse there is no turning back now. I begin to cry and pray simultaneously. I pull myself together to check on and support Trish who is grabbing for her yellow bucket to throw up again. She feels fine except for the constant throwing up. She doesn't consider herself feeling better today, but the rest of us see a marked improvement.

The nurse has come in and explained that she will be starting the drip slowly and checking Trish's blood pressure every few minutes. If she does well she can increase the speed of the drip. The marrow will drip in via gravity, no pump assist. It should take 2 1/2 to three hours to complete. I believe she said it is a 900 cc bag.

Trish is getting attivan and haldor to help with the nausea before she starts the transplant transfusion.

Somewhere tonight, there is a man who has a very sore back. We know nothing about him and he knows nothing about us. One fact is true. Without him, we would have no hope, because of him we hope for the best and move on. While the last two years have been exceptionally rough, the next 100 days will be much rougher. It is highly likely that Trish will have some effects of the transplant that will not be pleasant. It is even possible that these effects will kill her. But it is truly the only chance she has to see Andy and Matt complete their journey to become men.

It is 6:32 now, the IV lines are placed on Trish's central line and connected to the bag of marrow. The cells begin their journey into their new host.

7:23p.m. No reactions so far. Trish gave us a scare as she said she was starting to get itchy, but no hives or anything to be concerned with. Trish said it was just the normal itchy. The bag appears to be about half way through now. All vital signs are normal. Josephine says that if the patient is going to have an immediate reaction, it usually happens in the first hour. We are just 3 minutes shy of the first hour now and all systems are go!

A random observation from room 5
Some people believe it is good luck to rain on your wedding day. It rained on ours. My guess is that this superstition was perpetuated by the parents of every bride and groom who has been married on a rainy day. Well for the superstitious out there, it poured today in Baltimore. A nasty rain and thunder and lighting storm right around lunch time. It stopped around 2 or 3 this afternoon. At the moment, I have one eye on Trish and another out the window, watching a beautiful and bright sunset. While I would rather place my bets (and trust and hope) in both prayer and the doctors and nurses. I am taking great pleasure in the superstitious signs lining up in our favor too. You can never have too many fingers and toes crossed while praying. Trish continues to do fine.

9:10PM The bag of marrow is almost done. I think it will probably run a little longer than 9:30. For those who are curious. I took the two pictures below from my cell phone camera. Trish is curled up in her bed wrapped in the prayer shawl that Phil & Karolyn's friend sent her. The big red bag wrapped in gauze is the precious marrow (click on the picture for a better view).

9:55pm The bag is empty and the little chamber under the bag is emptying now. We'll call the nurse soon to flush the bag. She says they actually flush the bag to insure Trish gets all the cells. Tomorrow, I'll explain what happens next. Trish has slept on and off through the whole process and is feeling better. She hasn't been nauseous snce the transplant started. Dr. Luznik (her attending BMT dr.) checked in with us before heading home. He seemed to be in awe and respect for the process that I am sure he does almost every day. What would we do without this process. It's nice to know that the guy overseeing the procedure (for many years) is still in awe of the power of the process and what it means.

10:25pm The transplant is done. The bag finished dripping, just after 10pm and Michelle (Trish's overnight nurse) cleaned the bag. They actually flush the entire marrow bag until it is clean and in Trish -- they don't want her o be deprived of even one cell. While Trish slept through most of the transplant, she is awake and fairly alert now. Than what will be a favorite moment for me, forever, my wife who spent the day trying to eat unsuccessfully, turned to me and said, " Can you make me some white toast." I almost started laughing out loud. Instead I searched for the individually wrapped pieces of white bread -- which were hard to find tonight -- her ward(B) was out, A and D were out and finally I found some on C and began the ritual of making toast (click here, if you are clueless on the joys of toast).

Tomorrow is Day 1 in oh so many ways. Goodnight. God Bless you. We love you.