Cady's trip a success!

Ever since they returned from North Carolina July 22, everyone has been asking how 2-year-old Cady Smith and her parents, Kelly and Corey, made out at Duke University. You might remember in past weeks we've told you about the fund raising efforts Cady's friends and family underwent in order to send the little girl to Duke for a stem cell transplant.

Born with Cerebral Palsy, Cady's parents found hope in an experimental medical procedure being conducted at Duke. There, Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg has been re-infusing children with CP with their own umbilical cord blood in the hopes that the stem cells in the blood would enter the brain and reverse brain damage. There have been reports from other parents that the transplant returned some positive results. After learning this, the Smiths knew it was a procedure they had to get Cady into, even when they realized the procedure, not covered by insurance would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $14,000, plus travel expenses.

Leaving their two older children with family, Kelly and Corey boarded a plane early Sunday, July 19 and embarked on the nearly four-day adventure. Kelly tells about the trip on Cady's blog. Here are a few excerpts:

Monday morning, Cady's birthday, we headed to Duke for her physical and blood work. Poor girl had to get pricked twice to fill up eight tubes of blood! One vein wasn't enough and pooped out on the LAST tube! I felt so bad for her. She did NOT like having her legs restrained.

But, the rest of the day was a breeze. We went back to the hotel so Cady could eat and nap and at about 3:30 our friends Melanie and son Dylan came to take some birthday portraits. Unfortunately, it was raining so we weren't able to get as many outdoor shots as we would have liked, but Melanie was still able to get some really nice pictures.

Tuesday was the big day and we woke up nervous, anxious, ready to go... Corey was a nervous wreck because he learned about the possibility of an allergic reaction to the preservative in the blood. (I had already been made aware of this possibility - and I'm pretty sure I told him, though he doesn't recall.) Anyway, only once did this reaction, which can cause respiratory failure, cause Dr. Kurtzberg to stop the infusion, so I wasn't really concerned. Corey on the other hand wouldn't relax until all the blood was in.

We were dressed and ready to go by 9 a.m., except we didn't have to be there until 11:15. What were we to do with ourselves?? We decided to head over to the Duke Gardens and found that a wonderful relaxing way to spend our time. It was beautiful and Cady really seemed to enjoy it.

The process back at the hospital was very easy and before we knew it we were in the room waiting for Dr. Kurtzberg. We were told we'd be spending much of the day waiting, so we were prepared to do a lot of sitting around. I brought a book, Corey read some magazines and Cady was happy to watch Diego on the wall TV.

A little after 2, Dr. Kurtzberg was ready to do Cady's infusion. The blood was thawed and had arrived and it was only a matter of minutes before Dr. Kurtzberg was inserting the needle into Cady's right arm. She cried for a few moments, but after that was content to just watch the DVD player. As the blood went in, I could feel Corey's tension slowly start to ease up until he finally realized the blood was in and we had achieved our objective! Cadence's miracle blood was now flowing in her veins!

The rest of the day was spent waiting some more. After the blood went in, Cady was given an IV for two hours to help push the blood along through her system. We did meet the other families having infusion that day - one traveled all the way from Italy and the other was actually NOT a CP patient, but a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome who now had Traumatic Brain Injury. I'll tell you more about them in a future post.

We've been home for almost a week and everyday at least one person will ask if we've seen any changes yet. We know this is silly since we were told it'd be months before we saw any results, but this morning Corey happily reported to me that he told her, "Cady, say daddy," to which she replied, "Daaa..." Coincidence? Probably, as she had been getting stronger the last few weeks before we left, but it's fun to think she's already making strides.

If you'd like to read more about Cady's trip or stay up to date on her progress, visit her blog at www.cadyscause.blogspot.com.