Gratitude

Maybe I'm a few days late with this post, but I've been occupied.... Truth is, I've been feeling too yukky to blog.

Yesterday was the big day, Day 0, they call it in the transplant world. 

I started early with a dose of Total Body Irradiation, which involved lying on a table and having bags of rice packed around me to make a solid block and not moving for 10 minutes while the hulking machine on the other side of the room buzzed away (presumably shooting radiation at me). Then the techs turned me around and we did it again.  

Didn't feel anything; (knock on wood) no ill effects. 

Hung around my room for a few hours, then did that again.

When I was returned to my room, we started the prep for the transplant, which is really just a transfusion. A technician brought in a huge steel container that had held my stem cells since they'd arrived from Germany. They are held at something like -400 degrees until needed.

Each of the three bags of cells then defrosted in a room-temperature water bath before being infused through an IV. And now my body starts to assimilate those cells with my own.

It seems so simple, but the research that must have gone into this process boggles my mind. Yes, when you are lying inert with a giant machine whirring away delivering who-knows-what you think about strange stuff.

But the main thing I had to think about was the overwhelming outpouring of love and care that has come to me throughout this journey, and the apparently selfless actions of unknown donors around the world.

The transplant folks have all said a majority of the stem cell donors come from Germany, as mine did. Apparently, it is somewhat expected that you will register with the organization that handles transplants.

Here, that is BeTheMatch.org and I encourage you to check it out. Most of the people reading this are probably too old to be donors, but tell your kids and grandkids. Chances are you won't be matched and asked to donate (I signed up ages ago and was never called to donate). If you are a match, the donation process is only a little more than giving blood. And how great would it feel to know you'd given someone else the gift of life...

Bags are packed, I'm ready to go

 The waiting is over now. Tomorrow I check in to Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital in Denver for the preparation phase of my bone marrow transplant (5 days of chemo, then 2 short bursts of radiation) to ensure all the bad cells are out of my body..

That is done through an IV port in the chest; that's the part I am most apprehensive about right now. Unlike many who have cancer, I have not had to undergo surgery in the process. I'm no stranger to the knife (3 c-sections and gallbladder removal) but I do not relish the pain when anesthesia wears off.

Then, thanks to a generous 18-year-old German woman, my new stem cells will be infused on Monday, then we wait some more to see how my body reacts. Will the "old me" welcome these new cells and let them take over or will they put up a fight and cause problems, what the docs call Graft vs. Host Disease. It can be as simple as a skin rash or more involved, but there are good medicines to handle whatever happens.

And that's it!  

The hardest part of all this has been following the transplant center's rule that my caregiver(s) and I must stay within 20 miles of the hospital for about 90 days. Our home is 28 miles away.

Thus began the search for temporary housing in Denver. True, our situation might be a little unique as my daughter will come from Chicago to share the load of caregiving. so we needed more than the one-bedroom apartment the transplant center usually arranges. And the 90 days will span the Christmas holidays so we expect to enjoy some family time together.

What a saga --we were almost caught in a scam where people would take our money for a house they didn't have. Buyer Beware! Then the landlord of a 1940s-era tract house wanted ridiculously extensive background checks at our expense (both financial and potential online exposure). 

So many others listed online either got rented before we got to them or were more scams, because the listing people NEVER responded to our requests for in-person showings. So rude -- if you post something for sale (or in this case, rent), have the decency to answer people who want it....

And then you have the differing tastes of the parties involved. I love old houses, and Denver is full of "cute bungalows" with tiny kitchens, clawfoot tubs and questionable stairs. My husband wants to be careful and have the comforts of home in this century, including a garage to charge his electric vehicle. 

A lovely compromise in the West Highland neighborhood (former site of Elitch Gardens amusement park) will serve as our home for the coming months. It may not be perfect (as our Evergreen home is) but it fills the bill.

I'll definitely miss the big picture window full of bright blue sky when I wake up each morning, the keening bugle of the elk in the yard and the first winter in Evergreen (most of it), but I'll return in March (likely) with a whole new immune system.

Can't wait to start over. I'll try to treat this one better.