Rick got out of surgery this morning and it took a few hours for his bone marrow to be spun and filtered before it reached Craig. Rick came out of surgery in a lot of pain; he says he feels like he jumped off an 80-foot cliff, but he is recovering well and still smiling. Rick will need to stay overnight in the hospital. Luckily, he gets to stay in a room right across the hall from Craig’s.
At about 2:30pm, with a room full of watchful eyes, our nurses and transplant doctor hung the bag of dark red marrow above Craig’s head and connected it to his central line. Even though it is the most anti-climactic kind of transplant, we all shed tears over the fact that this is what we have been waiting for for the last 4 months. This will be Craig’s biggest battle yet. In a couple of weeks we see our first glimpses of how hard this battle may get.