Immunosuppressant Therapy has begun!!

Bradley started his immunosuppressant therapy!!

2 more days til transplant!!

The scariest part about the transplant is the immunosuppressants he will have to take.  For the first three months, they basically take his immune system down to nothing.  After that, they will slowly back down on the strength of the medicines they give him, but he will have to be on some dose of immunotherapy for the rest of his life.

After an organ transplant, the body will nearly always reject the new organ due to differences in the blood between the donor and recipient. As a result, the immune system detects the new tissue as "hostile", and attempts to remove it by attacking it with recipient white blood cells, resulting in the death of the tissue. Immunosuppressants are applied as a countermeasure; the side-effect is that the body becomes more vulnerable to infections and malignancy, much like in an advanced HIV infection.

For the first three months, we will have to be very careful about where Bradley goes and who he comes into contact with, so we can try to protect him against any type of infection.

The doctors have already told us to expect at least one hospital admission due to an infection sometime within the first six months.

So even though there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the journey is still not quite over...

Make-A-Wish

One of the highlights of this whole journey was finding out that Bradley qualified for the Make-a-wish program!! What an amazing gift!!

For those of you who haven't heard of the Make-a-wish Foundation, it is a non-profit organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Bradley's wish granters met with us on February 15th.  They sat down with Bradley to find out exactly what it is he is dreaming about and would like to wish for. Since this is a very important decision, it took Bradley some time to figure it out. He changed his mind 5 times I think!! Butttt...that's ok!! It's the dreaming that takes his mind off of his illness, and that is what the program is all about.

So...what did he wish for??? Well...since he is a big WWE fan, he wished to go to WWE Wrestle Mania in Miami next year, April, 2012!!

He will not only get to attend Wrestle Mania, but he will also get to meet some of the wrestlers (and mom gets to meet The Rock?? haha), go into the ring, get a world championship belt (not the real one of course), and probably much more!!

He should feel really good next April...almost a year out from transplant...so it will be an amazing trip I'm sure!!

I can't wait!! And I'm sure he can't either!!

Stay tuned for more on this, as his wish granters are going to make sure that the excitement keeps building throughout this next year!!