February 24, 2002|

I Must Have Been in Love…

Wednesday was the big day. It was an incredibly uneventful affair for being the procedure that could end up saving my life. I got up late (you’ll understand the significance of this later), had a little oatmeal, took a shower and then received the cells. I even wrote thank you notes and ate a mediocre lunch while getting infused. It was like getting any old transfusion, going through Darth and everything. I took a nap. The Benadryl knocked me out. I woke up. It was done. I watched The Simpsons and Seinfeld.

Then it happened. I fell in love. Isnt that what chills are all about? Let me tell you, I must have been REALLY in love. I had chills so bad I yakked. Really.

I don’t know who I fell in love with. All the nurses here have boyfriends. At least that’s what they tell me. (“Are you a surgeon? ‘Cause you just took my heart away!” “If you were a new hamburger at McDonald’s, you would be McGorgeous.”  “There must be something wrong with my eyes, I can’t take them off you.”) The doctors, well, they are doctors. And, well, that’s the extent of my human contact. Hmmm…

My other theory is that Billy’s stem cells were fully integrated into my system and started giving me the major heebee jeebies. Thankfully whatever happened has passed.

Since then I have had very few side effects, which is remarkable. I still have the crazy “cold fingers cold toes hot body” side effect. I have bad bouts of chills, but nothing like I had Wednesday. My throat is getting progressively sorer. That’s about it. Remarkable.

Life in Peds Part II

I have discovered that I really am digging life on the Peds floor. It’s so much better than being an adult, let me tell you. Let’s compare. Upstairs, on the adult floor, the nurses wake you up at 4am to weigh you. Then at 5am they come in again and draw their blood tests. At 8am the team of doctors make their rounds. One word for you- ugh! The chance of getting any sleep up there is remote. (You would think the more sleep a patient would get, the better, right?) Down here. Ah down here. I crisply wake every morning around 8:30-9am. The nurse comes in after I have awakened to weigh me. At 10am my primary nurse comes in to draw bloods. And maybe 10:30-11:30am I see the team of doctors. I can sleep in! I can sleep in!

Fridays are a good day. Friday afternoon the junk food cart comes around. Oh junk food! Any junk food you can imagine, they bring to you, to your room! I haven’t eaten a whole lot in the past week, but I couldn’t pass up that chocolate cupcake and bag of popcorn. You never get junk food upstairs. Maybe a tropical fruit cup. That’s as wild as they get up there.

Also down here they have started me on TPN, which is calories and nutrition through the IV. Hello? Where was that upstairs? Where was that last year when I lost 15 pounds?

Last week, I remarked about my shower limbo. What I didn’t mention is that my bathroom here is twice the size and twice as warm as the one upstairs. That’s huge. Quality of life, my friends, quality of life. It’s the little things. (Ha ha, get the joke? Little things? Peds floor?)

Up Next

From here is just the monitoring game. Today my blood counts have just about bottomed out. I have no immune system today. Scary. In a few days Billy’s will grow back. From there I will be in here a few more weeks just to make sure Billy’s cells take over and I don’t catch a cold or get the flu. So I’ll be here. I just hope I don’t fall in love again. Don’t you go fallin’ in love either! 🙂