I didn't know I could get so excited about blood products being injected into my body. But the days of anticipation paid off and I finally got a transfusion yesterday. It was a little nerve wracking signing the waiver when they told me the odds of contracting hepatitis or HIV, but then I remembered the other odds they gave me, so I said fuck it. I got two units of red blood cells and two units of platelets. It's pretty interesting how they have all the blood components separated out. I guess blood used for transfusions like this is specially filtered and irradiated so I don't get anything, like white blood cells, that would be bad for me.
It took hours to get it all in there. It gave me a metallic taste, but after a while I felt a little more alive. I could take a deeper breath, walk outside with Brent, and eat food. Hospital food even. Though, I much preferred the strawberry banana smoothie Brent brought for me. That tasted a lot better than blood.
I got another kind of transfusion yesterday. Lots and lots of presents! Thank you Pauline and the ClickBank team for the care package and all the kind words of support. I started using some of that stuff right away. And thank you Erin and Emily for the beautiful artwork. I unfortunately spend a lot of time in bed, and having a nice view on the other side of the room is great for morale. Thank you Dad for the food, and for arranging everything in my room so nicely. And thank you Brent, for making me feel like a princess. And for bringing Baywatch. That movie was funnier than I thought it would be.
I'm very glad to say my biggest annoyance right now, besides general malaise, is my itchy scalp. Actually all the hair follicles on my head feel tender and itchy, even my eyebrows. I keep wondering when my hair will start to fall out, and in what manner, and what I should do about it. I was thinking I could braid it, then cut off the braids for souvenirs. But it might also be interesting to see what kind of clumps appear, see if I can get a good combover in, just once.
Time is moving fast it seems. I keep hearing "next Tuesday" as the date for my next bone marrow biopsy. This would be the first real test of whether I'm in remission. But now next Tuesday is only two days away. It's sort of a terrible anticipation, both because I know how painful a bone marrow biopsy is and because I know the results will help determine the next phase of treatment. Monosomy 7 is more difficult to get into remission, and if I'm not there I'd most likely start another round of chemo fairly quickly. If I do get into remission on this first go round, I might be able to look forward to that Seattle nightlife sooner rather than later.
I hope you're all having a good Labor Day weekend, and not getting cancer.
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| fresh blood |
It took hours to get it all in there. It gave me a metallic taste, but after a while I felt a little more alive. I could take a deeper breath, walk outside with Brent, and eat food. Hospital food even. Though, I much preferred the strawberry banana smoothie Brent brought for me. That tasted a lot better than blood.
I got another kind of transfusion yesterday. Lots and lots of presents! Thank you Pauline and the ClickBank team for the care package and all the kind words of support. I started using some of that stuff right away. And thank you Erin and Emily for the beautiful artwork. I unfortunately spend a lot of time in bed, and having a nice view on the other side of the room is great for morale. Thank you Dad for the food, and for arranging everything in my room so nicely. And thank you Brent, for making me feel like a princess. And for bringing Baywatch. That movie was funnier than I thought it would be.
I'm very glad to say my biggest annoyance right now, besides general malaise, is my itchy scalp. Actually all the hair follicles on my head feel tender and itchy, even my eyebrows. I keep wondering when my hair will start to fall out, and in what manner, and what I should do about it. I was thinking I could braid it, then cut off the braids for souvenirs. But it might also be interesting to see what kind of clumps appear, see if I can get a good combover in, just once.
Time is moving fast it seems. I keep hearing "next Tuesday" as the date for my next bone marrow biopsy. This would be the first real test of whether I'm in remission. But now next Tuesday is only two days away. It's sort of a terrible anticipation, both because I know how painful a bone marrow biopsy is and because I know the results will help determine the next phase of treatment. Monosomy 7 is more difficult to get into remission, and if I'm not there I'd most likely start another round of chemo fairly quickly. If I do get into remission on this first go round, I might be able to look forward to that Seattle nightlife sooner rather than later.
I hope you're all having a good Labor Day weekend, and not getting cancer.
blood - it does the body good I hear. Looking forward to joining you for some Seattle night life. Fingers, toes, hair, legs, and, well, everything else crossed for some good news post-biopsy.
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