Day -1: Rest Day

Today (I'm meaning Tuesday, even though I'm writing this past midnight) is the day before his transplant! Aaaah!

Basically the whole point of today is to give Kal's body, as well as everyone else, a break before his stem cell transplant tomorrow. For the most part, today really has been restful. I feel at peace with this decision my husband and I have made to put Kal through this process of
stem cell transplant, and to accept whatever happens as God's will. We have seen so many miracles along this path so far that there is no doubt in my mind that the hand of God has been at play to help ease our burdens, even long before Kal joined our family here on Earth.

Nothing too "exciting" happened today, which is great, medically-speaking. He is doing well eating with the whole pacifier lollipop trick we discovered yesterday (as described in my last post). We did have one time where he had some mucous stuck in his throat while eating, so he threw up that meal. But, that's just comes with the territory. It's expected that BMT kids (and adults, alike) will have issues with mucous build up in their throat and GI tract as well as eventually getting mouth sores and not wanting to eat. Since it is expected, I didn't worry too much and wasn't too surprised when he threw up.

Enjoying his baby food (this was not the feed he got sick during)

Messy boy!

"I'm the number one, cutest baby ever holding a spoon"

Kal hemoglobin counts were too low today, so he got his first blood transfusion today. Apparently, it is very common to get multiple blood and platelet transfusions during the BMT process as well, so I wasn't too upset or surprised that he needed the transfusion today. We saw his counts lowering over the past few days, so the doctors and nurses warned me this was coming, yet how common it is. Of course, I didn't know or think of  how much blood this unit, let alone this hospital, must go through in a day. Hooray for people that donate blood! It certainly is always something that's needed by someone.

One of my good friends was awesome and brought my husband and I lunch. My hubby requested anything Asian with rice because he hadn't had a good Asain meal in over a week. He really does enjoy typical American-style dinners that I cook, but after going so long without rice, he feels like he is dying without it, haha. That meal totally made his day!

Other than that, today has been pretty chill. Kal is wooing all of his nurses, of course. Sometimes the techs or nurse would just hang around in the room for a little bit, just watching him. Other times the tech would peek in the window to see if he was sleeping or not so she would know if she could come visit and talk to him. I don't know if it is because he is so healthy-looking and happy that mesmerizes them, since they are used to sick, crabby kids in pain most of the time, or if it's just something about Kal that draws people to him. Nonetheless, he is practicing and refining his flirting skills a lot here. He espeicially likes to hold the hand of whoever is using their stethoscope on his chest and tummy. Where did this kid get his smooth skills from, eh?! Hahaha.