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...