I so appreciate the role that our nation's farmers and agriculture specialists play in getting food grown, harvested, and on the table at home. You have to have the patience of Job I'm sure, and guess what, I clearly do not. Ha.
So, since last Wednesday, when the stem cells were actually transplanted back into my bone marrow, I have been playing this waiting game, patiently looking for signs that the graph is taking hold and that this will put me into a partial remission, which was the goal. But alas, nothing yet, short of my white counts and platelet counts predictably dropping toward their nadir of 0.0.
And of course the nurses and docs have sensed my impatience with this whole process and are having more than a little fun at my expense . . . "Only a couple patients took the entire semester for their counts to increase, I wonder if you could be the third?" Comedians. They belong on Jimmy Fallon, not the 6th floor here at University Hospital.
But the transplant itself went just fine. I even experienced a couple "hot flashes" when they were reinjected back into my blood stream. OK, ladies, never again will I make a joke or laugh about hot flashes that you might experience. Been there, done that. And take a look at that bag of stem cells in the picture . . . looks like raspberry gelatin doesn't it? But oh, the secrets of science are in that very bag. Amazing.
Nurse Catie slowly injects the stem cells back into my blood stream. Slow and methodical is the best way. Five minutes into the process, they take your vitals just to make sure you're not going to faint or experience a bad reaction.
It's Monday of Week 2 in the hospital. I have work to keep my attention and the financial markets are open. I hope you have a good week. Thanks for your ongoing support and prayers. Without them, I am not sure where I would be at this point. I am very grateful that God has blessed me with such a great support group of friends, family, and well wishers.
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