Day 1

Hello Loved Ones,

So, Tom's a new man. He finished filling up with Steve Marrow at about 10:00 PM last night - 3 bags of it. It's pretty anti-climactic on Tom's end - as the transplant procedure is akin to a blood transfusion, of which Tom has had many. However, for Steve it's another story. Being a life-saver is painful. Steve was a champ, had a smooth harvest and is now resting through the achey recovery. Steve and Katie were able to come up and visit Tom after Steve was released. Tom was so happy to see his brother, friend and hero. The DuBransky boys love each other and there was never any question that any of the boys would do this for any of the other boys, but all the same, Tom is moved and overwhelmed with gratitude, as am I and as is Gabriel (well, being four, he mostly thinks it's really neat).

Tom's heart rate has been watched closely since the transplant began, as it has been too low (about 45 instead of his usual 70 - 75). The Laker game raised it temporarily, but not consistently. He temporarily had some chest pressure, but they gave him something to help with that, which was probably due to the thickness of the stem cells, which were placed directly into his heart for distribution throughout the body. Next steps include keeping infections at bay and managing the graft vs. host disease inherent in this process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graft-versus-host_disease). Though, Steve and Tom deny that there will be anything other than a peaceful compromise met within Tom's bones!!

It was great to see Tom with some energy and some smiles yesterday. He had suffered with nausea and vomiting since Tuesday night and felt that all he could do to avoid it on Wednesday and Thursday was sleep. He was overwhelmed with feeling sick and exhausted. On Thursday, after almost two days of this Tom received a call from Joe Adams, who was a leader in our youth group in high school and a man of great love, affection and encouragement to us throughout our young and young adult lives. Joe prayed for Tom over the phone and Tom found this so meaningful that he laid his head in my lap and cried (for all the dudes reading this, I was not only authorized, but encouraged by Tom to tell this story). Tom is so grateful for all the prayers and appreciates the opportunity to hear the prayer himself (even if he has that comical moment of "curse that guy for making me cry"). In the end, I think this was a great relief to Tom to be able to let out his frustration and fatigue this way.

In an uncanny related event, Thursday night I was sitting on my bed getting Gabriel ready for sleep and reading to him, when, as is customary, we were about to move onto cuddle - the last step before bed time. You're going to have to trust me when I say what occurred next has never occurred before. Gabriel said, "Mommy I want to lay between your legs and cuddle" and he preceded to lay down and lay his head in my lap exactly as Tom had done earlier that day and squeezed chemo duck to his side. I've always known that Tom and Gabriel have a very special connection and a whole lot of physical and personal "alikeness," but this was such a stark picture of it to me. I didn't even realize until the next day when I was at the hospital telling Tom about Gabriel's day. Tom asked how I was doing and how Gabriel was doing and I tried to think of things that he had done that were just different to try to assess how he's doing. I realized that this need to be comforted in this special way was new and then realized: it's new for both of them.

Not only have we considered that this challenge has strengthened our faith and our understanding of the heart of God, but it has allowed all three of us to find new aspects of one another and to see, in ways that we haven't before, how tight these bonds are between us.

With love and great hope, The Highland Park DuBranskys