Merry Christmas Everyone!

After months and months and months and months, this day has finally come!

Let me begin by saying that this is the first Christmas without my mom.  Felt strange all day long.  My morning was very difficult.  Happy/nervous for Tony and a tremendous sadness of missing my mom today. Very emotional.  I was gifted an angel ornament with my mom's name on it.  Today I began a tradition. Wherever my brother and I are for Christmas, together, this angel ornament follows us.  It was a touching moment with my brother putting this angel on his tree today. (sniffle sniffle)

Now, back to Tony.  He was quiet and tired all day today.  In fact, after a huge Italian meal, he fell asleep on the couch and slept with lots of Christmas noise all around him.  Before we all departed our separate ways, we took a family photo by the tree.

We left my brother's house after 6pm to check in to the hospital.  My son joined us, which was nice.  I needed company on the drive home.  (roads were really bad)  We checked in with the nurse.  They gave us a tour of the place.  It was so warm, inviting  and friendly.  A great staff!  They took his blood and did vital signs.  His blood pressure was 173 over something.....that's high.  He blamed it on the walking tour of the ward.  (He had stopped taking high blood pressure pills because of his weight loss.  It had become more normal).  The doctor then came in and explained what would be happening in the next few days.  Did a physical as well. After a while of lying in the bed, they took his blood pressure again.  150 over something.  Better.

What's in store for the next two days:
At 5:30am they will begin hydration through IV.
At 11am they will give him his chemo dosage through IV.  That runs for 30 minutes.  (Can't remember the chemo name)
Friday, they do the transplant.  Which is basically giving him back his own stem cells to help recover from the chemo.  This is given back to him through the IV.
Chemo effects will begin after 7 days of getting it.

I shall keep my followers posted.
Good night everyone!
Hope your Christmas this year was a memorable one.