Last day in Washington D.C.

I woke up this morning at about 6:45am, and immediately thought of my recipient. I imagined my stem cells arriving and the process starting for them. I am praying for success in the next couple of weeks for engraftment to take place and things to really start moving for them. Engraftment is when the new blood-forming cells start to grow and make healthy blood stem cells that show up in their blood. They are most vulnerable to infection during this time. For patients who receive marrow or peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC), engraftment can occur as early as 10 days after transplant but is more common around 14-20 days.

I also thought about how tough it's going to be for the first year until I can request to find out who they are, if they want to know who I am. With them being an international patient, I need to find out if the same rules apply where they are, as I've heard some countries have different waiting periods before allowing anonymity to be broken. They are going to weigh heavy on my mind for a while, hoping that they will recover completely. I will be able to get updates through DKMS on milestones, like engraftment and progress, but it will be very minimal information.

Our last day in Washington D.C. and it's snowing! It's not sticking anywhere, so I'm not worried about getting out of here tonight, but it sure makes an interesting view compared to the weekend. Here is the South end of the Capitol Building with snow, and you can see the flag on top, which means the House is in session.

We got to briefly meet Senator Cruz this morning and he thanked me for my donation, and I thanked him for his service. We had lunch at the Capitol visitors center, then headed back to the hotel to wait for the car to the airport. 

My symptoms today are still present, but I am feeling much better. I still have lower back pain, and headache, but it's definitely getting better as the day goes on. I can't wait to get home and give my kids a big hug.