Day after D-Day (Donation Day)

Me during hour 4 of 5 for donation...


Well after a long day of adventures and a night of rest, and resting today...I thought it was about time I sent out an update to all of you. Most likely as I am typing this my mom is being infused the Interleukin-2 soaked NK cells that I donated yesterday. So prayers that they do their work and mom's system doesn't fight them.

The pretty NK cells...I think they look like a sunrise. :)

When I stopped by to visit her yesterday morning she was nauseous from the previous day of chemo and was a bit sleepy from the anti-nausea meds. By the time I finished my donation and went back to check on her (with my roommate) she was up and smiling and shocked to see me there-I was supposed to head straight home and rest but wanted to celebrate the moment for a little but. She's looked the best I've seen her look in a long time yesterday afternoon-and her low grade fevers only last that one day. So I think she's in the best place she can be to accept these cells. :-)

But I'll at least give you the breakdown of yesterday before we get into anything else...

Yesterday's schedule:

7:45am got to the U of MN with my roommate, went up to visit with mom for a bit.
8:00am had my 1st of 2 IVs placed. (Shortly after I lost my cell phone and my roommate and I found it in my car a 15 minutes later)...
9:00am was checked in and ready to go at the apheresis lab-got the second IV placed and started donation. Watched "A Fish Called Wanda," had a tasty salad lunch with the roomie, and then watched part of "Under the Tuscan Sun". During this time a family friend and my mom's social worker stopped by to say hi and check on my status.
Me all hooked up-and almost done this was hour 4 of 5...

Me with my wonderful roomie who was my chauffeur on the way home and marvelous assistant during the day! :) Love you roomie!

The Machine/ "Octopus" (according to my mom's cousin)...it separated my blood-kept the NK cells and returned the rest to me.

The final product! Those are the NK cells for mom (that she's having infused right now)!

2:30-3pm (sometime in there) I was done and on my way up to surprise mom with a visit and then headed to Chipotle for an early dinner with the roomie. Some time online catching people up and then fell asleep reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire".

Today has been a day of rest catching up on shows I've missed, doing updating and sleeping in. Tomorrow I am back to the grindstone (AKA work). Feeling great, though still feel like I could sleep the day away.

Prayers at this point:
- Mom's body accepting the NK cells and not having issues with side effects
- My sister's health. She just got home yesterday and has a sinus infection/possible cold. So prayers that she heals up soon so she can go see mom.
- Patience and strength for all of this experience for the Dixie's Chicks it's going to be a rough couple weeks-so if you have a free moment or a night free please give one of us a call. I know we will be tired but we will need to keep our spirits up during this time and company is always wonderful for that.

With all my love and gratitude for our INCREDIBLE team of support,
Kate