This week we made our official transfer to the transplant team at the SCCA. Yesterday we started our day at registration where we were given a green card, which looks like a credit card that holds all of Georgia's information, we were told that we have a "mailbox" and were then sent up to floor six - the transplant floor. I guess I assumed that the environment would be more like Children's Hospital... more kid friendly or maybe at the very least I was expecting to see another kid. We arrived and were surrounded by adults, some younger than others but all decades upon decades older that Georgia - this served as a reminder of things that still linger in my mind, how are we here, she is just a baby, this isn't fair.
On this large floor we were sent to one of four pediatric rooms. After waiting for a bit Georgia was getting antsy so Brian took her for a little walk... all of a sudden I heard from several voices, "Georgia!" "Oh the infamous Georgia"... all people who'd seen Georgia waving from our room at Children's during our last stay - she would see the transplant team rounding on other patients and was always full of smiles for these people who had only ever waved back at her. We finally met with a nurse, physicians assistant, we went over our schedule for the week and were given a tour of the facility. Georgia was such a trooper, again being poked and prodded by so many people then sent to the lab for a blood draw - the maximum draw for her weight. Today we started the day off with an EKG, 10 stickers with 10 clips attached and she had to be perfectly still for 10 seconds... 10 seconds is a very long time for a one year old. Fortunately the ABC song did the trick and we got a good read. We were supposed to meet with the attending physician to go over all of the nitty gritty details of transplant but 45 minutes before our meeting he had to cancel because he wasn't feeling well... the last thing we need is for Georgia to get sick from the transplant team who cannot impress enough the importance of Georgia's health going into transplant.
Tomorrow Georgia will have her fourth bone marrow aspirate as well as a lumbar puncture, both are done to test for the presence or absence (in her spine) of JMML.
This week we also learned a bit more about our donor - first and foremost he has agreed to donate and donate bone marrow (he has the option of stem cells). He is from somewhere in Europe but we don't know which country. If we had an American donor and if both parties signed consents we could contact them a year after transplant. Other countries have different laws, some will allow you to contact after two or three years but some never do - we will have to wait and see.