Beautiful things - jaylor story (peace book 4)

first day of conditioning chemo

** monday July 7th 2036**

-taylors pov-

We arrive at the hospital early in the morning for the bone marrow transplant process and are taken back to a room. But this time it's a special room where they can filter the air and stuff so they can minimize the risk for infection.

Her bed setup is the same as always, blanket over the ugly hospital duvet cover and her own pillow, but we made sure to wash it before we came here so it's not dirty obviously. She is in a really bad mood this morning but with promise of a Frappuccino from Starbucks every morning when joe comes to visit, we convinced her to go, and we stopped by to get one on the way here today too. She wants the Frappuccino with cookie stuff in it.

"Just so you know it mommy I'm only doing this because you give me these. And when I get home and the blood things get better, I want that kitten. It's going to be the same type as dibbles and it's going to be named karma because that works for both a boy and a girl" she grumbles and sit on her bed.

Joe is hanging up pictures with silly putty on the wall to make it seem less like a hospital room, so she is more comfortable.

Doctor Ryan comes in and smile at kenzie with nurse Fallon behind her. "so we are here to tell you a bit more about what we are doing now kenzie. We are going to give you a special chemo that kills the bone marrow. Which is something that kind of look like a sponge inside your bones that make all the different types of blood cells, including what we will be transfusing to you, stem cells. Sometimes we get these StemCells from a family member, but for you, your parents took the cord blood from when you were born and put it in a special place where they can keep it just in case you needed it. But first we need to do this six-day course of chemo" she goes on to explain the process of it and why we are doing it. We are obviously doing it because her cancer has traveled into her bone marrow. That's really dangerous so we need to fix that now.

"The stem cells we will put in on monday will be healthy and is going to go into your bone marrow and make new healthy blood cells. That's the goal. But there is always risk and we need to tell you all about that" she continues, and I feel sick. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, most of all the transplant could fail which will leave her without an immune system. Her blood counts could get too low and not recover even with transfusions. She could essentially die from a whole range of reasons. Kenzie is getting an umbilical cord blood transplant, which are stem cells that grow into mature blood cells quicker and more effectively than stem cells from the bone marrow of another child or adult, so the odds are better. Thank God we decided to keep the cord blood for all three of the girls.

"We have gone over these before but some of the side effects are infections, low blood counts of white, red or platelets, pain, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, breathing problems, organ damage, graft failure, teeth damage, infertility and death. So this transplant isn't something to tread into lightly, we need a final written consent from both parents" the doctor says, and the nurse has the papers in her hand.

Joe and I look at one another but we don't even need to speak, of course we are doing this, we need to do what we can to save our baby. We both sign it, and another nurse comes to access her port while the doctor asks if kenzie has any questions.

"Will I still get cancer pops when I'm in the bubble. And can I have my Frappuccino's for these six days because mommy and daddy promised me that" she pouts, and I chuckle "yes miss Mackenzie. But Friday is the last day before we need to completely isolate you and your mom from everyone else. But then you will get cancer pops though, we will make sure of that. And you get lots of suckers because the special chemo we are giving you make you taste it. So what kind do you want, and I will make sure that you get some"