Transplant

We did it... she did it. At 1:01am on Georgia's 14 month birthday she started receiving her new bone marrow, the process was slow and steady as there was a large volume. The goal for her is to get somewhere between 15-20ml of bone marrow per her size, 10kg. The nurse took vitals every 15 minutes then upped the rate of infusion and continued to monitor her. Eventually her blood pressure went up and the docs made the call that it was time to be done. At 6:58am the process was complete, Georgia got approximately 23ml/kg - a fantastic achievement.
When the bone marrow arrived I felt excited, that we had arrived in this moment, I felt calm knowing our donor was a 10 out of 10 match and that this is what will make Georgia healthy again.
Throughout the night we were dealing with some effects of the chemo, which is still causing her nausea and some pain. This is something the doctors told us to expect but hearing about something and living it feel very different. She was sick several times through the night so when the transplant was done I was looking forward to some rest. The day nurse came in to check her vitals and said she was going to call our transplant team nurse practitioner because Georgia's heartbeat seemed irregular. The day brought an EKG, chest xray and a visit from the attending cardiologist. Everyone seems to agree they think it is caused by the volume that she got but to be safe they are monitoring her for 24 hours... as of tonight things look better. The good news is that all of her lab results look great and the transplant attending said she is one strong girl and is doing really well.
We've all spent the day exhausted, napping in between visits from various hospital staff but by this afternoon Georgia was a happy girl, she looks like she snuck out and went tanning - her skin is pink and healthy. Her red blood cell count went from 23 to 54 overnight! We started her on continuous doses of an anti nausea medication and morphine for the pain. It's hard to put her on morphine, albeit a really small dose, but that is what my mom was on. She is happier and seems comfortable and was able to eat some tonight which is always a good thing.
Today has been somewhat of a roller coaster, dealing with the side effects, making sure her heart is ok, most of all though knowing we have hit a huge milestone but feeling like we have a long road ahead - so many people are really excited about this and I get that but knowing your child is on morphine, some IV nutrition, immune suppressants and anti nausea medications is far from exciting to say the least. Everyone here has been so supportive of us and all truly care about Georgia, that makes this journey a little easier.
We have a giant step behind us but there is no time to waste.. it's time to forge ahead.