Grafted

O.K... So, this is how it was supposed to go:  Tomorrow is day 21, which is hospital discharge day.  Then the process of rebuilding should begin.  The platelets would take a while to rebound and the white count, specifically the neutrophils, would take a bit longer.  We would need to go daily to the stem cell clinic for IV infusions and blood work.  After several weeks we should be able to go every other day, and close to day 100 we should be going back weekly.  This was to be the best case scenario.  No...I don't think so!

As of today, Nick has already been out of the hospital for a week.  We were told that he got out earlier than anyone with the same transplant in the history of Vanderbilt. (If Google is correct, Vanderbilt was established in 1873.) He went to the stem cell clinic daily for four days.  By Saturday his platelets were in normal, average, healthy person range.  We were told early on that his neutrophils had to be at 500 for three days in a row before he would be declared "grafted."  By Sunday they were at 450; Monday  - 850.  They gave us Tuesday off.  Wednesday his neutrophils were 2400, which meant that he was already grafted before the day that he was scheduled to get out of the hospital.  He goes back tomorrow and we will have the entire weekend off.

Grafted?  Where have I heard that word before?  Oh, yes...Romans 11.  Romans graphically (no pun intended) describes how we, as Christians, were not part of the original "Olive tree," but were grafted in to the thriving plant . What in the world does that mean?  I'm glad that you asked.

To put it simply, the nation of Israel grew up from the "root of Jesse" under the covenant that God made with Abraham.  Of course, the "root of Jesse" was always a description of Jesus, but that was not evident until the prophesies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in the birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Savior.  We, as Gentiles, were not part of the original plant, but God knew from the beginning that there would be a way for us to be a seamless part of his living, growing, thriving planting.

As the book of Romans describes, when we were grafted in, we then started drawing our life and nourishment from the original root.  Jesus, Himself, described this phenomena  in John 15:5:

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Without our having been grafted in to the original vine (who was directly from the original "root of Jesse") we would not have the life that we now have...and will have for eternity.  The new covenant completely broke us off from our old lives, and spliced us into of a completely different, fruit bearing species.

Nick's blood (where the life is)  was contaminated before.  His marrow that should have been producing oxygen carrying, germ fighting, life sustaining cells began producing mutated cells that could not sustain life.  So, he has gone through the last 9 months of chemo trying to separate the good from the bad (so to speak,) but the mixture just couldn't be separated.  So, the old marrow had to be cut off, and he had to be grafted into a source that was not contaminated...a source that would only produce life.  Sound familiar?

Don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that Amanda is Nick's savior.  I am just pointing out some interesting parallels. I think that God is so sweet to help us understand the difficult things in life, by understanding the plan that He set in motion before the beginning of time.

Roman's 15:12 quotes the Prophet Isaiah from the Old Testament: 

“There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”

This is where our hope lies...in the "Root of Jesse"...in the Way, the Truth, and the Life...in Jesus, Himself.  Because of Him we have both hope and life.

It is well.