Transplant details

Here are the transplant details:

Last Sunday, the donor started doing chemo to make his body produce excess bone marrow stem cells. Yesterday he was hooked up to an aphoresis machine with an IV in each arm. The machine pulled blood out of one arm, filtered it to separate the stem cells from his blood, and then returned most of his blood to his other arm. I estimate this procedure took 5 hours. So, chemo for 5 days and then hell for 5 hours. Amazing.

In my case, the chemo and prep started last Monday with Total Body Irradiation at 11am Friday morning. Basically they bombard your body laterally with radiation from head to toe over about a 20 minute period, then they literally turn the gurney around and do the same to the other side of your body as if you were a rotisserie chicken or shawarma/doner kabab. There was no "Shake and Bake" used. Apparently the effects of the radiation can be quite devastating for some patients. The techs commented that I performed in the 95th percentile because many people apparently pass out during the process. Yes, I felt something, but I can't exactly tell you if what I felt was psychological (knowledge that it was radiation emanating from the source of sound), or whether there was an actual physical sensation. It was quite subtle.

Anyway, I went to sleep during the process and wasn't pleased that they kept waking me up every 2 minutes to see if I was OK. It wasn't high stress for me. WAY easier than getting me to go into an MRI.

Ok, so I bailed from the radiation facility at about 12:30 and my buddies Suzie and Pam took me home for a couple of hours. Thanks Suzie and Pam!

Suzie picked me back up at a little after 2:30pm so I could check into the hospital for the transplant. I clocked in at almost exactly 3pm and watched TV until our friend Chao arrived for a visit. Chao's a good guy. (We talked about Ed a lot.)

Soon afterward, Ed arrived from Vancouver with smuggled Chinese food. Unfortunately it was from Panda Express (food court junk). Not to my appetite. I ordered hospital food. (The UW hospital has "room service" and a complete menu. Not bad, but slightly industrial.)

Chao had a dinner date with friends, so Ed and I watched TV for a few hours until about 11pm, whereupon it was announced that my transplant cells would arrive at midnight. Hmmm..... two hours earlier than previously advised.

Sure as heck, about 5 minutes before midnight, two bags of Sangria arrived, slightly chilled to 74F. They were individually hung from their "botas" and infused into my central line over the next three and three quarters hours.

Unfortunately, they checked on me every 15 minutes or so to make sure I wasn't having a reaction, and when they were finally done at about 4:30, Ed was snoring like a cartoon character. I didn't get much sleep last night and they allowed me to check out of the facility at noon today. I was there for only 21 hours.

Today has been a bit of a recovery day. People ask me how I feel and I have to say I'm surprisingly good, considering what everyone has told me I should feel like. Yes, I'm sleepy and slightly worn out, but overall I feel healthy enough.

Heck, we went out for dinner with friends tonight. I must feel adequate.

Was I freaked last night? My blood pressure didn't show any signs of stress. The BP was about 120/70 and my pulse was in the 68 range just before I took the bullet.

We'll see how it goes from here on out. Life goes on.