Max Mikulak - neuroblastoma angel

Wow! Max is more amazing with every passing minute. He's still feeling energetic and is eating pretty good. Yesterday his blood count dropped and his isolation started. He has a set time daily to visit the playroom and Hannah came to play with him while he was there.

He woke up this morning 6:15 and wanted to go the playroom right away. Instead we opened up the toy box we brought from home and played on the floor for a few hours. Then we were able to go to the playroom for an hour before they opened to the general public. He ate a nice lunch and then the stemcells were delivered!

Max's stemcells are being infused as I write. Just a little bag of what looks like blood being dripped into him slowly over an hour. He was given some pre-meds (tylenol, bendryl) to counteract the preservative that is mixed with with the cells to keep them from breaking down while they were frozen... so he's having a nice little nap during the whole uneventful procedure.

His blood counts are dropping rapidly now (platelets, red and white) which was the goal, and I expect that Max will start receiving blood transfusions as early as tomorrow. He should also become less energetic until his stemcells engraft (as bone marrow) and start making blood on their own which takes around two weeks.

In the meantime, everything's going way better than imagined!