Friday, October 30, 2009 7:39 PM, CDT

The magic number - 30 Million!!!

That is the number of baby stem cells Mark has collected yesterday and today. We are so excited! He did this in less than four hours, really good! He only needed 20 million so he now has a few in reserve! Mark’s RN/tech for this was a nice Englishman, Mark A. Jolly. We didn’t have a problem remembering his name. Watching the apheresis machine separate his cells and replace the cleansed blood into his body was totally fascinating. Human ingenuity is amazing. Our mechanical family members would have loved to have seen this piece of equipment.

This means he is finished with tummy shots, I know his middle is relieved. Mark is feeling better today, but still taking it slow on eating. Maybe the good weather will give him energy to get out for some exercise and get everything back on track.

Mark has an appointment with Dr. Nair on Monday and we hope he will release us for a couple of weeks of R&R. Mark will have to have this portacath removed and I am sure more labs taken before we get out of here - hopefully on Tuesday. Wouldn’t you know it, the weather next week is forecasts to be wonderful. It has rained every day except four since we have been here. We are mildewed.

The clinic staff was dressed for Halloween today. I don’t know who enjoyed them more, the patients or the other staff. It was chaos all day. They thought Mark dressed as a surgeon with his mask and green cap.

God has blessed us with this wonderful result. We pray he will continue to be with us in this journey.