Tuesday Recap

The days still continue to be long, and stressful, and by the time Delaney is asleep Mommy and Daddy are exhausted. Delaney was up and this morning early as usual, 5am, being the fun loving 2 1/2 year old that she is. The nurses at UCSF began a pre treatment for her Broviac lines at 6am, they administered anti coagulant in her lumen lines and let is sit in the lumens for around 3 hours. They are doing this so early just in case that her broviac does not have the blood flow that it needs to harvest, that there will be time to have an operation to put in apheresis line in. Delaney was wheeled up to the 11th floor to begin the harvest and we will find out in moments if it will work. We met with the nurse at the hemodialysis clinic and were explained the process. Todays goal is to have the broviac flow good enough for harvest, they must harvest stem cells a total of 6 separate times to collect around 2oz. or 60ml of stem cells, but there must be a certain concentration or number of stem cells required to in order to rescue Delaney after her last 3 cycles of chemotherapy. There is no guarantee they will get the required amount on the first harvest, she may have to come back for future harvests, a test sample once the harvest is complete will let us know. The system is primed with a donors blood then Delaney's blood is removed through one lumen, supun up for harvest and returned to her through the other lumen. Here is the big moment for Mommy and Daddy, the nurse is getting ready to remove the TPA and flush her lumens. The nurse removed the TPA and flushed the line. It works, this is a huge relief for Mommy and Daddy, Delaney will not need the operation and now can move on with the harvest. The harvest has started and we find out that Delaney's broviac is positional and that line will not get the necessary pressure because the line gets pinched if she moves or sits in a certain way. We spent a lot of time finding the right position and it just so happens it is Delaney laying on her back on mommy. So mommy layed flat on her back with Delaney on top of her, she did this for 5 hours straight until the harvest was complete. It was quite a challenge to keep a 2 1/2 year old entertained on a hospital bed in roughly the same position for 5 hours. The harvest is now complete and Delaney did great. She is now taken back to her room in a wheel chair. She is wiped out, but she did what needed to be done, to rescue her self. Now Mommy and Daddy wait in anxiety, stress, and most of all hope that Delaney will only have to endure this once. We got the results, around 615 pm last night. They were able to harvest around 70 mls, or the equivalent of 4 bags, 58 million stem cells, to our relief Delaney made it over a big hurdle today, this single harvest is enough to rescue her 3 times, once after each cycle of chemotherapy and have one bag in reserve. Mommy and Daddy are so excited. Delaney can now be discharged, she can head home for a day of rest, that she will need, she has more chemotherapy on Wednesday. Delaney is a fierce fighter, Mommy and Daddy are so proud of her. Thank you to all of the medical staff that had a hand in Delaney's care at UCSF. Thank your for all the prayers, love, and support. As always....GO TEAM DELANEY!!!!!

"And though she be but LITTLE, she is FIERCE!"