It’s been an eventful 24 hours since Idan started his stem cell infusion yesterday. The cells were infused over the course of a few hours and towards the end Idan started to feel bad and spiked a fever. No way of telling if it was the infusion, the week of chemotherapy and ATG or a new virus/bacteria affecting him now that he has zero immune system. The took blood cultures and gave him Tylenol to reduce the fever. He was pretty tired and not in the best mood the rest of the day yesterday. Around 3:30 AM he woke up upset and spiked another high fever. He took his Tylenol well (getting him to take his oral meds has been a challenge) and went back to bed. At 5 am they gave him a red blood cell infusion as those counts have (predictably) dropped significantly in the last couple of days.
Today he has been enjoying lots of birthday celebrations. The first thing he wanted to do when he woke up was unwrap some of his presents. He also asked us if, because it’s his birthday, will the nurses give him a break from checkups. Sadly he does not get that break. But they did all come in and sing him happy birthday which was fun. Then another hospital volunteer brought by another big bag full of gifts. A very special nonprofit called The Confetti Foundation organized a whole array of birthday goodies and decorations and a special delivery of cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. Idan insisted that Amanda stay up late the night before decorating the room so it would be ready for him this morning. He then stayed up and watched, announcing he was “too excited to sleep.”
Sadly, the week of Chemo, the lack of immune system, the fever, and a very itchy rash (likely a side effect of chemo) has taken a toll on his mood. He has been very cranky and tired today and, although wanting very much to celebrate, he has just not been feeling up to it.
Thank you for everyone that organized and sent him gifts for his birthday. In addition to a very fun session with music therapy where insisted that the musician sing 7 Years by Lukas Graham, unwrapping these gifts and seeing the cupcakes and decorations brought him a great deal of joy and are helping him through a rough couple days.
We will end with a sweet line he send yesterday after all the commotion of transplant and not feeling well. Before he went to bed he said: “Mommy, it’s ok to be sick because you get to meet a lot of friends.”
Glad he knows how to see the positive in everything.