Dylan is doing Wonderful!!!

I know that I havent posted in a few days, but to be honest I wanted to make sure everything went smoothly. I didn´t want to jinx anything. On Tuesday and Wednesday Dylan just got shots to boost his bone marrow production. Thursday was the big day!!! We got there at 8:30 am and everything started around 9:30. They took Dylan away into the operating room. That was very hard. Watching him go. These people are wonderful and I know that they have done this many times, but it is still my child and I was scared. I walked up and down the halls the whole time they were back there, which seemed like forever, but in reality it was like 30 minutes. During this time they extracted Dylan´s bone marrow so that they could get the stem cells to infuse in his spine. Once they were finished they wheeled him out and everything was great. His heart was doing wonderful and the extraction went well. There was a cardiologist monitoring his heart the whole time, which made me feel much more comfortable. Dylan woke up about 20 minutes after they brought him in the room. He was very irratable and I could tell he was uncomfortable. This unfortunately is normal considering the extraction in pretty painful. That is why he was put to sleep. So we had to wait around for about 3 hours for the lab to seperate all of the red blood cells from the white cells and the stem cells. Once they did that they brought back the red blood cells and put them in his IV. Dr. Mancias said that the red blood cells that were put back in the IV also contain stem cells and he got 9 million through the IV. Once they got everything seperated it was time to go back into the operating room and infuse the stem cells into the cerebral spinal fluid. Dylan had to be put back to sleep for this because he had to be completely still. The procedure took about an hour and everything went awesome. He was infused with 22 million stem cells, which is an awesome number. After they brought him back in the room he slept about 30 minutes and then he was ready to eat. He had not eaten all day and he was famished!!!!! Once we got home we got him so more milk and food and it was off to bed. Well, the doctors told us that he would probably sleep in and not to worry if he slept later than he nomally did. Of course Dylan wakes up at 3am and is wanting to have a party. He was talking and laughing like it was 10 in the morning. He finally went to bed around 5:30 and slept till 7am. We went back to the hosptial around 10 on Friday morning just so Dr. Mancias could check Dylan out and make sure the injection sites looked good. Everything looked great. We pray that the stem cells will work and will see some improvement in 3 to 4 months.
We went to the planetarium today just to get out of the hotel. It was pretty neat but nothing to exciting. The neat thing was that they had peacocks walking around and parrots flying in an aviary. They were so beautiful and Dylan really seemed to like them. There was an albino female peacock. That was a new one for me. I have to say that this has been a wonderful experience and I pray that it was worth it. I go to sleep thinking about all of this and I wake up thinking about it. It has consumed my life this last week. I will be glad to get back to normal day activites so I am not just thinking about it all of the time!!!! We leave tomorrow at 12:30pm central time. I can`t wait to get home and see Joe and Conner. I have missed them so much!!!!! I will keep you posted on Dylan`s progress as well as all of the wonderful things that Conner is doing as well. Hope this finds you all well. As they say in Mexico. Chao!

What A Day it Has Been

So I didn't post yesterday because we really didn't do anything. The doctors came to the hotel to give Dylan his shot to start boosting his bone marrow and after that we went to the mall and then walked back to the hotel. Monterrey is a nice city and the people here are really nice. Unfortunately, today was not so great. Dylan was to have his MRI today and that meant that he could not have anything to eat or drink after 6:3o this morning because they have to put him to sleep. He is obviously not going to lay still for them to take the MRI pictures!! We got to the hospital at 10:00 and they were running about 30 minutes behind. Not to bad but then the screaming starts around 11:00. Dylan has really bad veins to stick. (a trait he unfortunately got from me) So for an hour the nurses and doctors tried to get a vein and then once they got it, keep it from blowing. Well finally they got a vein and it was working and everything was good. We go down to have the MRI and when we get down there and get ready to push the sedative medicine in..... the vein had blown again!!!! At this point the doctors say that they are not going to stick him any more and they are going to try and give him some sedation medicine by mouth and see if it will last him long enough to get the MRI done. They give him the medicine and within 2 minutes he throws most of it back up. He had not eaten all day and by this time it was 1:00pm. So the medicine didn't sit well on his stomach to say the least. Luckily, enough stayed down to get him in a sleep that was good enough to get the MRI finished. After that we went back up to the doctors office to get Dylan's daily bone marrow boosting shot. That went well. He whined for a minute and then it was over. We finally made it back to the room around 2:3o where Dylan downed a sippy cup of milk and a lot of Little crunchies. He was my hero today. After everything that he had endured today he was smiling and being his cheerful self after he got something to eat. He has been through so much in his little life already. Tomorrow will be a better day!! Hope this finds you all well.

WE ARE IN MEXICO!!!!!!

We have arrived and we are so excited. We landed in Monterrey, Mexico around 11:30 am central time. It has been run run since we got here. Fortunately, we have a wonderful cab driver that has hauled us everywhere and back again. He is so great. He brought us to the hotel then to the hospital then to the grocery store ( where he went in and helped us shop and get the best stuff!!!) then to McDonalds and then finally back to the hotel. The people here are absolutely great and so helpful. While at the hospital Dylan had t0 have some blood work done and of course it took them forever to get a vein. The first nurse stuck him and did the roll the needle around to try and hit the vein. Well like many other times this did not work. Dr. Mancias took over and got a vein in his hand. Poor Dylan just has veins like me. They are so hard to get. He was a trooper though, as always. He is such a strong little boy. Dr. Mancias is Awesome!!! She is so nice and knows what she is doing. You can tell how much she cares about what she is doing. I will keep you updated and everything. Until then hope this finds you all well.

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