June 9, 2009 Skyline Chili

Day +5 held no surprises. I do my 75 laps around the pod, I gargle 10 times, I have my lungs checked out 8 times, I have my temperature, heart rate and blood pressure checked 6 times and I get my blood tested once. The only thing of significance is the last. That gets done at 4AM every morning and I get the results as soon as I get up.

If you had a chart that would show what was supposed to happen, that would be a predictor of what is happening for me. As Dr. Mikhael stated, “I’m boring.” Now, he said that in a nice way. Things are going just as planned and he couldn’t expect anything better. In my world, boring continues to be good.

My white cells are almost non-existent. Since I still don’t have the ability to make new ones, the old ones are just meeting their normal life expectancy. I’m down to 1.0 verses the normal 4.2-10.2. That is a drop of 60% from yesterday. I would expect the same drop tomorrow. I am just about defenseless at this point. Should I get a fever (which is almost expected in the next couple of days) I will start getting antibiotics, have additional blood tests and get a chest x-ray, just to make sure nothing is going on. My mouth is starting to bark at me a little bit, but hopefully it won’t get too bad. I’ve lost just under six pounds so far, but you wouldn’t guess it from my still chubby self. My brilliant plan of pigging out before I checked in seems to be working so far.

About the only excitement of the day (aside, of course, when Julia made it up!) is when Megan (transplant coordinator) stopped by. The three of us entered into our normal discussion of food and we had to indoctrinate her concerning Cincinnati Chili. Those of you from Arizona have already suffered through this presentation. We feel it is our life mission to convert the world to Cincinnati Chili. Skyline is one of the few things that actually sounds good at this point.

We then moved on to what she does for a living. I’m sure I am going to butcher this, but her main job is to hook recipients up with donors of either bone marrow or stem cells. She typically has 20 patients that she is working with. I was easier than some, because I could use my own cells. For a number of diseases this isn’t as readily available.

As a result, she may have to search the world for donors. Later today, she was to receive cells from somewhere on the other side of the world. This entire process is amazing to me. I have always been a designated organ donor (not sure I am still eligible.) That seems pretty easy to me. I die, they can take anything they want to help someone else. If there ever was a no brainer, that is it.

This is different. Here is somebody in another country, say Germany and he decides that he is willing to have cells harvested to potentially save someone he has never met. Giving up your organs after you are dead is one thing, but we are talking a weeklong process that you have to agree to in making this commitment. One that has some discomfort associated with it.

I’m sure there are thousands and thousands of people out there that are dying because they can’t find a donor. My guess is that most of us never even think about stem cell or bone marrow donation. Maybe we should.