Well I was adding my last photo to this blog earlier today and I derped and hit the back key and deleted the whole thing!   So, I am starting again because I feel it is important to show you these photos and this process since you were all so supportive when I had to travel alone and complimenting my precious son!

Let’s start again!

For anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about, let me fill you in!  When my son, Jordan, entered the military several years ago, he was given the chance to go into the National Bone Marrow Donor Program data base!  He gladly took this chance!  Well, now several years later, he matched with a cancer patient who is in need of a bone marrow transplant!  So he and I met up in San Diego, California where he went through the process and donated bone marrow!

The donation happened a medical center by the name of Scripps!  It is a HUGE medical facility that two different universities teach from!  It was a BEAUTIFUL facility!  The fountains were gorgeous!  We don’t have a lot of fountains up here in Northern Michigan, so we were rather impressed!  The photo that is the part of the hospital where this all took place won’t post into this blog, so I gave you a bad shot of another part of the facility that we passed every day!

Here is Jordan on his first day!  He had to do volumes of paperwork and consents!  He had to do them for both the hospital’s records and a bunch for the Marine Corps!  He had to get special permission to be allowed to take pain medications during this process!  They drew viles and viles of blood!  I was a little surprised that he had any left to share! (:  He also got his first two injections on that first day!  The shots couldn’t go into his muscle, they had to be put into the subcutaneous tissue on the backs of his arms!  He had to get two of the injections every day of the process including the day of the procedure!  These injections made his bone marrow produce more stem cells!  In order to get his bone marrow to do this, they had to make him sick!  It caused some awful side effects!  It makes the bones ache and throb!  It makes you feel like you have a really bad flu!  I wish I had written down the name of the medication that did this, but in the month since I have forgotten it!

This is where they do the procedure!  The strange horror movie looking piece of equipment on the right is the machine that removes the stem cells that are being donated from his blood stream!

This was the day of the procedure, and he thankfully got his LAST two injections!  The nurse who did all this was a wonderful woman and I wish I had gotten her name so I could thank her and give her credit in this blog!

Right after he got those injections they again had to draw his blood!  Then we had an hour to wait while that blood was being processed in the lab!  He was exhausted because the bone pain kept him from sleeping!  On the third day they gave him pain medication to help with that, but he still couldn’t sleep well!  So they gave him some medication and brought him warm blankets!  He really appreciated that sofa at that point!

They finally got him cleared by the lab and into bed!  Then they took MORE blood!  The procedure itself consisted of taking his blood out of one arm and putting it through the machine that collects the stem cells!  Then putting his blood back into his other arm!

He never stops being a goofball ! (:

The actual procedure caused him a LOT of pain!  He was not doing well here!  I know he looks like he is asleep, but he just kind of went into himself to get through that pain!  I am so PROUD of him!

Here are all the machines and needles involved!  It makes me cringe to think back on what he went through!  That bag hanging on the machine that looks like tomato soup is his extracted stem cells!

The finshed precious product!  I really hope that bag saves someones life and gives them many more years with their family and friends!  Jordan said that day that if this person needed to do it again, he would be happy to help! (:

Here is Jordan later that day with the certificate and the t shirt the hospital gave him for donating!

The next day my precious son was on a plane headed back to Japan and his job in the Marine Corps!  I am so PROUD of my children!  I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to do this with Jordan!

It is my solumn prayer that the recipient achieves full remission!

THANK YOU JORDAN FOR YOUR SERVICE AND YOUR COMPASSION!!!

THANK YOU BUZZNET FAMILY FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ AND COMMENT ON ALL OF MY VERY LONG (SORRY) BLOGS!!!