Day -1

So tomorrow is the big day. Logan is getting his stem cell transplant! Today is Logan's last day of ATG. Thank goodness, he is itching like crazy right now because of it. It seems like the side effects of ATG are kicking in at the last minute. Well, one of them anyway. He has quite a few hives and, like I said, he is itching really bad. The nurse is about to bring him something for that, because the Benadryl isn't helping.
Logan hasn't been feeling very well today. He threw up a lot last night, so they gave him some Adavan for his nausea. It helped but made him sleep. He has been sleeping most of the day. We did get him out of the room this morning. We played in the connection room for a while and then rode around in the car for a little bit. Then we came back to the room and he went to sleep. So again another uneventful day.
Oh yeah, except for they put us on contact isolation because Logan is coughing and they want to make sure it's not an infection. So whenever we go out we have to wear yellow gowns and gloves. After typing that last bit five minutes ago, it turns out the whole floor is on contact isolation because one of the kids has the flu. So now everyone has to get tested until they can go off.
We are looking forward to tomorrow. Even though the transplant only takes an hour, and the kids usually sleep through it... when you think about it, it's kind of like being born all over again! Logan gets to have a birthday twice a year. Well I will write more tomorrow and let everyone know how it goes.

Day -2

I'm sure you are wondering how Logan did during the night. Well he did great! His temp got up to 102 around midnight, but it went down within fifteen minutes. He also got hives, just a few on his face. He wasn't uncomfortable, he slept most of the night. He did wake up to throw up three times, because he was nauseas from the chemo. Today he has either had a very low fever or no fever. As of right now he has no fever and he has already started his second dose of ATG. Tonight should be easier because the second day always is. And then tomorrow is considered his rest day, even though he still has to do his last dose of ATG. Friday is the big day, Transplant day!
We had a pretty good today, Logan actually smiled a couple of times, I have really missed seeing those smiles.:) He was very swollen today because of all the fluids he is taking in. His eyes were almost swollen shut, but they gave him some Lasix. It made him pee a lot, so now all the swelling is down.
We went to music therapy today, it was fun. I think when Logan is feeling better he will really enjoy it. Today he was a little sleepy and kept dosing off through it. But he did pop his head up as soon as he heard everyone singing the Diego theme song.
So all in all it wasn't a very eventful day. We are two days away from transplant day!You can see how swollen his little face got in this picture.

Day -3

Logan started a new drug today called ATG. This is the most brutal one of them all. It's worse then the chemotherapy. ATG is an immunosuppressant. It is obtained by injecting human cells into a horse. The horse's immune system attacks the human cells and the antibodies are isolated to make the ATG. When injected into a human, the horse antibodies attack human T-cells. Usually when kids are given ATG they spike a very high fever. It can get up to 105, sometimes higher. They can get hives and their blood pressure can drop. The doctor said this is when kids feel the worst. It's some really scary stuff. So far Logan has not had a fever, which is a good sign that his fever won't get very high. He may or may not break out into the hives, but it's likely that he will. He had his chemo again today. He had a reaction, but it wasn't as bad because they gave him Benadryl as soon as he started acting uncomfortable. Tomorrow they are going to give it to him automatically since they know for sure what's going on with him. They also give him Benadryl with the ATG. He has been sleeping all day because of the Benadryl. His liver enzymes where a little high this morning. They checked them again before they gave him his chemo and they were normal. They think either the meds just hit the liver or that there was an error in the lab. But he is ok. Santa came by this morning! It's Christmas in July. He brought Logan some cool toys. I would have taken a picture but Logan didn't want Santa near him. He did enjoy the toys though. They had a pretty impressive Santa, real beard and all. It's so nice that they do things like this for the kidos up here. It's such a rough time for these poor kids, and they make it as nice as they can for them. Another awesome thing is tomorrow is Logan's last day of chemo! But he still has one more day of ATG after tomorrow, and then it's Transplant day! This is it for tonight. I hope that there will be no high fevers tonight.
Here is a chart of Logan's white blood count. Billy got all the labs together and made this chart. It should be down to 0 by transplant day. It's crazy seeing this.

Day -4

We had quite a scare today. The morning started out like it was supposed to. Logan got the meds he usually gets and his chemo. About forty five minutes into his chemo Logan started rolling around in his bed and just couldn't get comfortable and then he started screaming. We called the nurses in, and they had no idea what was going on. Logan kept grabbing his neck near the incision from the central line surgery. The nurses were worried that his central line may be leaking because his neck looked a little swollen. They stopped the chemo and everything else that was running through the lines. I could tell by the nurses faces that this could be very bad. I asked what the reaction would be from chemo leaking out of the line. They said it has never happened before. Logan was rushed to get an X-Ray so they could inject the line with dye and make sure that it was not leaking. Through out all of this Logan was still screaming. When they did the X-Ray they saw that the central line was not cracked and leaking. It was a huge relief. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I have never seen Logan scream in pain like that. It has to be one of the scariest experiences in my life. They could not give him pain meds until they knew for sure that his line wasn't leaking because they have to inject the meds into his line. Anyway, they think that it may be a bad reaction to the Cytoxin. It's one of the rare side effects when the eyes, nose, and mouth burn, in Logan's case throat too. When we got back they gave him pain meds and he calmed down. Tomorrow when he receives his chemo they are going to give him Benadryl. It should help.
After everything he fell asleep for about four hours. When he woke up he felt much better. He has not thrown up at all today which is great! And after this morning it was a pretty good day. We took him out of the room and did ten laps,and took a bath. Then we watched some TV... Wubbzy of course. Right now he is just chilling in bed. Dr. Szabolcs thinks that he will be feeling pretty good tomorrow since the Dilanton will be totally out of his system. I am looking forward to that! That's it for today, there is a wet diaper calling to me. :)

SLEEPY HEAD

Day -5

Today Logan started a new chemotherapy. It's called Cytoxin. Cytoxin interferes with the growth of rapidly dividing cells like cancer cells and can surpress the immune system. He also has to take something called Mesna with the chemotherapy to help protect the bladder because the Cytoxin leaves the body through the urine. Unlike the other chemotherapy he was on, he only has to take Cytoxin once a day. The Cytoxin hit him pretty hard today. About 20 minutes after receiving hit he had really bad diarrhea. But it was only one time. He has been super nauseous all day. He's been throwing up a lot. He hasn't eaten or drank anything since Friday, but no one is concerned about that. His nurse unhooked him from his lines today for about thirty minutes so he could have some freedom, but as soon as we got him up he threw up.
He got his dressing around his central line changed today and he just laid there and let them work. Billy and I were shocked. I think it's because he is just so weak he doesn't have the mental or physical strength to fight.
Last night Logan got a low fever, but they don't give the kids medicine for their first fever, because they want to see if the fever is going to spike. His fever didn't. It when down within an hour. They did take a blood culture to make sure there is no infection, so far they have seen nothing. The'll let it grow for seven days to see. Hopefully there is nothing. I can't imagine how he would get an infection, I have become more of a clean freak then I was before. I went and bought my own disinfectant stuff to keep in the room. My hands are so dry, I think I wash my hands every five minutes.:)
When I look at Logan laying there in bed and seeing how awful he feels, I feel so bad. I mean Billy and I are the ones who choose to put him through all of this. I wonder, is it worth it? I know it will be, it's just hard seeing my child suffer. Well tomorrow is a new day, maybe Logan will feel a little better.I thought this picture was really cute. We were about to give him a bath but he was to tired to sit up.

Day -6

Logan has not been feeling very well today. This morning when he woke up he seemed like he was a little weak but, not too bad. We took him around the floor and went to the connection room to do some drawing. He enjoyed it for about ten minutes and then started nodding off right there at the table. He is just so exhausted and weak. The rest of the day was no better, he threw up a couple of times. Luckily the Zofran is keeping his nausea in check now. He has pretty much slept all day. Around 3:00 we woke him up so we could walk around the floor a little bit, because the more he moves the healthier he will be. We didn't make him walk, we just let him sit in the car while we pushed. At least he got out of bed! But I felt bad after because he threw up when we got back to the room. One good thing is he isn't running a fever. But almost everyone here has said that it's in our future. I hope not. Who knows, maybe Logan will be different, we will see. Well this is going to be a short one today because this is all I have. It hasn't been a very eventful day because Logan has been sleeping. I hope tomorrow will be better for Logan. It's very hard seeing him like this, but it was expected. Only five more days until Logan's transplant!

Billy and I made Logan some Wubbzy stuff to put on the wall. You can't find a whole lot of Wubbzy stuff anywhere. It's Logan's absolute favorite show.

Day -7

Today was a great day! Logan was a lot more perky. He woke up in a great mood, probably because he had such a good night's sleep. I don't know how he sleeps through all that goes on during the night. The nurses come in and out and check his vitals, draw labs, and change his diapers. We had a really nice nurse last night. She insisted that I let her change Logan's diapers so that I could get some sleep. Normally Logan's diaper wouldn't have to be changed during the night but he is on IV fluids so he has to be changed almost every hour and a half. When we change his diapers we have to wear gloves because some of the chemicals from the chemotherapy are secreted through the urine and could absorb into our skin. But to get back to today, it was great. Logan ate a little today. I'm not so worried about it anymore. The nurse told me because he is getting fluids and calories we don't have to worry about him eating so much. On transplant day he will start getting TPN, which is an IV nutritional supplement that provides his full dietary needs.
Logan got an hour of freedom from the all the lines today. The nurse said they are going to unhook him everyday for an hour, and he can do what he wants on the floor. We walked all over the place, and did a little art in the playroom with the other kids. Then he got a bath, not a real bath in the bathtub, just a sponge bath. He is nice and squeaky clean and happy!
Billy and I also signed up for a study today. It's a study to see if parents can control there child's pain with a Patient Controlled Analgesia(PCA.) So, in other words, instead of calling the nurse every time, we are going to be able to press the button for the pain meds if we think our child is in pain. Of course it will be more organized then that, it is a study after all. We will have to fill out a chart telling how we knew the child was in pain, if the meds helped after an hour, how we know they helped, and how the child is behaving after receiving the meds. It will give us something to do, and the way I see it no one knows their child better then the parent. We know if they are in pain or not.
Tonight Billy is staying at the hospital and I get to go to the apartment. Billy will get sleep tonight though because we have a great night nurse. That's all I can think of to write today. Also, I want to thank everyone for all of the support. It always helps to know that people care.