Day 0

Well, Friday it finally all went ahead and the cells were harvested and infused. Emily was great and wasn't worried at all, other than waking up feeling a little sore and nauseous afterwards. After that wore off she was fine, and able to go downstairs and see her special medicine being applied (and eat a chocolate frog).

Abi had a pre-med that made her very sleepy, so she slept through the majority of the process. Amazingly, the marrow is simply hung in a bag after a quick filter to remove any bone fragments etc. After entering her system the cells 'lodge' in the marrow, eventually they'll engraft and start producing blood products.

Abigail is doing well, still eating a little, though it tends to run through her as her gut begins to be hit by the chemo. Engraftment will take between 2-4 weeks, so until then she'll start to go down hill. She now has no neutrophils again and only a few white blood cells, so the danger is from infection. Hence we are in an isolated room, and must take all care not to pass something on. The hospital is currently experiencing a run of gastro, so not great timing there. She might also react in some way to the transplant (similar to 'rejection', though it is the donor cells that will 'reject' and attack Abi's cells). This will hopefully be very mild given the match, but the level is unpredictable. Hence, we wait, as until engraftment and the first 100 days pass we won't be sure how it is all going.