Merry Christmas

It's day -2 here in Hershey, and Jeff is getting his last big dose of chemo for Christmas. As I mentioned before, the nauseating stuff started yesterday, so Jeff isn't feeling all that great right now. But, we're getting closer to the big transplant day, which means we're closer to getting out of here. So, right now we're just taking things day-by-day.

The therapy regimen that Jeff is receiving is a sleeping giant. Although he hasn't felt too poorly yet, the real side effects haven't kicked in yet. In fact, all of his blood counts are still in the normal range, and won't start dropping until a couple days post-transplant. In the mean time, generations of cells are being killed off, which will deplete his bone marrow until it's just about empty of all cellular life. This will give Mark's stem cells the opportunity to find their way to Jeff's bones and start to make blood without a fight from Jeff's immune system.

As for me, I'm still feeling okay, albeit a little uncomfortable. My clothes aren't fitting all that well anymore, and Dad and Rich want to buy me some camoflauge suspenders to help keep my pants up. I guess there are some things about being pregnant that you can't really appreciate until you're actually experiencing them yourself.