Monday, 10 August 2009 - TRANSPLANT DAY - DAY 0

Today was the big day. Drew woke up pretty flat, even Professor Marshall noted on his check of Drew that he wasn't bouncing around like previous days. He also delivered the news that Drew was going to have a nasogastro tube inserted - that went down well. Drew was given a drug that made him pretty relaxed and Lucy and Jo got it in without too much drama, Drew got used to it as the day wore on. He felt sick on and off throughout the day, but was pretty calm, whereas the day wore on I got more emotional. At 2.45pm the two scientists brought Drew's cord blood up in a tin of dry ice. It is still frozen on arrival in his room. They check all the details of the cord and Drew, before thawing it in water at 37C, which only took a couple of minutes. The blood is then syringed out of the 'bag' and pushed slowly into Drew's line. In the first couple of minutes Drew was quite ill, but he settled down as the rest of it went in. The last of the blood in the bag is mixed with saline to ensure they get it all out and was pushed into Drew's line again. He was very pale and his blood pressure did go a bit high. By 3.15pm it was all over. Drew needed a tablet to bring his blood pressure down and then he went to sleep for an hour or so. He is on a myriad of medications, but had a good nights sleep. That was the easy part, now the hard part begins.