Update on our cousin Doug

These are words from my cousin Sarah(Dougs wife).  Please continue to pray for healing. Day zero - The day Doug received his sister's stem cells passed uneventfully. Marylin was able to donate 4.3 million cells over about 6 hours yesterday. That was more than we could hope for in one sitting!! They harvested so many that she did not have to return to donate more and had her port removed late in the evening. We thank God for her willingness and desire to help Doug in fighting this cancer. Doug received those cells this morning. It took only 20 minutes to pass from the bag into his body. It was amazing at how simple a beginning this complex procedure has. He slept through it all and slept most of the day. He received a dose of benadryl to protect him from any allergic reactions and atavan to calm him and those really knocked him out. He became funny Doug for a short time before he finally went to sleep. He woke up about 3:30 and we filled him in on all the events of the day. Jessica, Tina, Erik, brother Steve, Marylin, and I spent most of the day in his room. We watched him sleep and each of us silently lifted our prayers throughout the day. Now we wait for these new cells to find their way to his bone marrow and to begin working. His own white blood counts will continue to go down and he will be very vulnerable to infections. Within two weeks counts should go up. That will be a signal that the transplant worked and those cells are setting up shop and doing what they are supposed to do. The doctors say he will get very sick before he gets better so we ask for prayer for protection for him as he goes through each day.  The whole procedure is just amazing to me. How do those stem cells know where they are supposed to go to do what they are supposed to do? Only God our Creator could have made something so complex work exactly like it should. It made me think of Psalms 139, verses 13 - 14. 'For you created my innermost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well.'