Day 2 Germany

Tuesday was crash day and bone marrow extraction day. I guess it was catch up on sleep and rest day along with treatment. All went very well.

We were picked up at 1130am for appointments at 12pm. They had changed Reyna's appointment to match up with Kenneth's. Very nice of them. Both pretty much had their extractions at the same time.

As for Reyna, I went into the room with her during the procedure. She took about 1.5 hours. Slow bleed I guess. They had to relocate the needle several times to get the amount of bone marrow needed. They ended with 21 vials. I believe each vial was about 15-20ml. I will ask on Thursday. Pretty much a painless procedure, or at least Reyna did not jump or scream. She did say she felt pain when the Doctor asked, "ok, I am putting in the needle, do you feel it"? and she said yes when in fact, he did not start yet. Funny. I think the biggest pain she felt was when the protective sheet was removed (blanket with adhesive circling the operation area). Other than that, very smooth and painless procedure. When Reyna was finished, we met up with Kenneth. At that point, Kenneth was ready to leave.

As for Kenneth, Grandma Jeannine assisted in taking him in to the room. With in about 45 minutes Kenneth was finished and in the recovery room. Doctors reported that all went very well. The communication with the recovery needed clarity. Perhaps between waiting for Reyna, Kenneth being finished so quickly that we were not on the same page. End result was that Kenneth was in the recovery room longer than needed. Could of been waiting for Reyna but we were having coffee in another office talking with Denis from New York with his son. No harm.

We cannot truly evaluate Xcell over another clinic of the same, having not been to another stem cell clinic. We can only compare to hospitals and clinics in the states. We believe that in professionalism, efficiency, and cleanliness exceeded our expectation and in some cases US standards.

The drivers were not able to return us to the hotel. We were given a taxi voucher and a taxi was called. This was a good thing so that we could see what the cost of a taxi was to compare with the Xcell transportation. We figured that the Xcell transportation was cheaper. Xcell charged 150 euro, which is about $220 US. Seems like too much at first, but after seeing families in and out of taxis with chair aid equipment and the one way fair cost from the clinic to the hotel of 19.60 euros, the cheaper, more convenient, and stress free route was the Xcell transportation. Although staying in Neuss, the distance is relative to staying in Dusseldorf. Taxi fair would of exceeded the 150 and probably 200 + euros.