Saturday, Jan 2. Roy had his 4th and final day of chemo this morning. This was a different kind and even though the chemo drip only took 30 minutes, he had to eat ice chips for an hour. I asked the nurse why and she said it was to constrict his blood vessels in his mouth and throat as the chemo could, and probably would, make mouth sores but the ice would make them less severe. Also, as soon as he got the chemo, he got in bed and took a nap- he said it really zapped him but after lunch he was feeling much better. He also wasn't peeing as much as the doctor wanted him to - probably not drinking that much - so they gave him some lasek (sp) through the IV and boy he didn't dare go to far from the room. Within an hour he had gone about 3-4 times, I lost count. By the time I left about 2 hours later he was better and wallked me down to the front door.

About 4p.m. the nurse came in and hooked him up to his anti-rejection medicine along with a small bag of saline. They have to run them together as they need a certain level of the medicine and they will check his level every day and make corrections as needed. I don't understand it for sure but from what I gather the total amount is 21, so they start out with the anti-rejection medicine at 10 and the saline at 11 and whatever corrections have to be made, the total has to be 21.

Then on the 4th he will get the transplant. The nurse said it will be just like receiving some blood. Probably he will need blood tomorrow as the counts are starting to drop but not too fast or too far yet.

The nurse said the bag of chemo he got today should be the last chemo he will need; and if she is correct that means the transplant worked and Roy is doing good. We asked how long it would take his blood to change from O negative, what Roy has, to A positive, which is what Tommy has. She said it would take about 3 months.