My Husband, The Great Humanitarian

Okay, so that title is a bit of a joke. When this whole process of bone marrow donation first began they sent Ryan a letter and referred to him as a great humanitarian and they concluded the letter by telling him that they were here to serve him because of the great humanitarian work he was going. Well, I've been hearing about that ever since. Ryan loves to remind me what a great "humanitarian" he is! Needless to say, he's milking this for all it's worth.

Okay, so here's our plan!

My parents are arriving this afternoon and will be staying until Saturday. They will be taking care of my two precious kiddos! McKenna has bronchitis. Ugh! She's been wheezing really badly so please pray for her that it doesn't get any worse!

Ryan and I are leaving this evening (Wednesday) to head down to Georgetown University Hospital. Well, stay overnight in a hotel (the reservation has already been made for us) and the next morning we will meet Keith, a guy with the transplant team, in the lobby of the hotel. He will escort us to the hospital (I guess they want to make sure Ryan doesn't change his mind and try to make a run for it). Ryan's surgery is scheduled for 10:00am on Thursday morning. He should be done in about an hour. Truly this should not be a complicated procedure at all. This is quite standard at Georgetown University Hospital, that's why we're going there. There is always the possibly of complications or side effects with anesthesia. We're not expecting any of those issues because Ryan has had shoulder, nose and elbow surgery before thanks to a few baseball injuries. He's always done well with anesthesia. The other complication to worry about is bleeding. Once they start removing Ryan's bone marrow they want to make sure they can get the bleeding to stop once they have enough marrow. This is a more common complication and one that we are prepared for. Ryan donated his own blood a few weeks ago that they will have there in the operating room in case they can't get the bleeding to stop. If Ryan needs a transfusion he will be given his own blood. Hopefully he won't need it and the Red Cross can just keep it for someone else. Some bleeding is to be expected over the first few days following this procedure. Ryan will spend the night in the hospital Thursday night to watch for hemorrhaging. It is possible that they might discharge us to the hotel Thursday night (that's what we both want to happen), but we can't come home. We have to stay close to the hospital for at least 24 hours.

On Friday we should get to come home! The other exciting thing that will take place on Friday is that a medical courier will hand deliver Ryan's bone marrow to the patient. The leukemia patient will receive Ryan's bone marrow (just like a blood transfusion) on Friday (as long as there hasn't been any complications on her end of this). She should know in about three weeks if the bone marrow transplant is working or not! Oh my, we need to be praying for her!

I'm taking my laptop with me, so I hope to post some updates during our stay, but that will be dependant upon whether or not there is wireless Internet access at the hospital. I do know that I'll be texting updates to our family, so if you want to be included in those send me an email (judah322@hotmail) with your cell phone number. I never text someone unless I know that they have texting included in their calling plan!

Here are the specific things that we would ask you to join us in prayer about:

1. That Ryan will have a successful surgery. That there will be NO complications.

2. That our children will be happy, healthy and will sleep well while we're gone. (The sleeping thing is a mess with Miss McKenna right now).

3. That Ryan's bone marrow will bring complete healing to the leukemia patient.

P.S. I've been a little behind in my blogging lately and I caught up for the most part during nap time yesterday, so I've set a couple of things to post while we're gone. So even if I don't get to post from the hospital, you'll still have something new to read!