> Well, Adam is back in the good life as of about 3 pm today. The last of the
> chemo is still trying to figure out which end it wants to come out, but
> today I had power to turn off most of the nausea I had. I walked around the
> ward, I even spent ten minutes on the exercise bike. I was even able to
> play a game of cribbage with Caity. She won, but at least I was able to
> focus on the game today.
>
> Oh, and for the record, last night I hit the triple crown of vomiting,
> urinating, and having diarrhea at the same exact time. Since then however
> I've been great. It's quite an interesting sensation when you've just
> finished chemo. You've just spend 7 days in complete and utter hell, and
> even the slightest relief anywhere in the body is a wonderful feeling. The
> doctor's say I should have at least a 5 day period before the worst of the
> procedure hits. This means I get to hang around the hospital pass time
> until the infections, flu's, and the Graft vs Host disease sets in.
>
> For those who don't know about Graft vs Host, here's the Cole's notes
> version. In a liver transplant, my body's immune system would recognize the
> new liver as foreign and would attack. In a bone marrow transplant, I'm
> getting a new immune system which will eventually start to attack all the
> foreign things it finds, like all the rest of me.
>
> Yep, that's right. I'm sitting around waiting to get brutally sick again.
> GVHD likes to attack the kidneys lungs, liver, eyes, and stomach, so when
> that time comes, I'll be put on every known anti-rejection drug on the
> market to protect myself from any long term effects of the transplant.
>
> Damn, I forgot to talk about the transplant itself. Well here's what
> happened.
>
> A nurse woke me up at about quarter after twelve in the morning this
> morning. In her hand was an IV bag filled with one and a half LITRES of bone
> marrow. The only thing I could think of when I saw that much bone marrow
> was how sorry I was for the other guy. My donor had the bone marrow biopsy
> from hell it looked like. On the bright side, the stuff was fresh and there
> was lots of it, making my chances even higher that this will succeed. It
> must have come from somewhere close if it was fresh, so everyone ask around
> to see if someone you or your friends know has just given up one and a half
> liters of fresh A+ bone marrow.
>
> Anyway, over the next three hours, someone else's bone marrow slowly dripped
> into my veins. I really am a mixture of grateful and disgusted feelings
> with the whole process. While I am very happy that yesterday was hopefully
> the brand new start to my life, I am a little disgusted from watching
> someone else's marrow drip into me for three hours. At least with a heart
> transplant, everyone doesn't stand around staring at the donor heart for
> three hours. It goes in and that's that. Not this drip, drip, drip of
> someone else's bits.
>
> On that same token, I want to publicly thank the donor of my new immune
> system. I don't know you at all but I have a feeling that your in Canada
> somewhere. It could be my unique gift of intuition that freaks out everyone
> or just a wild guess. Here's what I think.
>
> 18 year old male.
> Lives in BC or one of the North Western states
> Brown hair, blue eyes.
> 5'10", and 185 pounds
>
> If anyone wants to start a donor pool, that's my pick. And just for the
> record, I have not experienced any ESP from my donor. We are not swapping
> stew recipes with our brainwaves, though I guess some small part of me
> wished we could.
>
> Ok folks, it's 11:00 pm and I need to sleep. But just so you are aware of
> just how focused I am on entertaining you with my wit and prose, I actually
> was typing this as my nurse was drawing blood through my central line.
> That's right baby. Bleeding won't even stop me from my task.
>
> This is getting silly. Goodnight
> chemo is still trying to figure out which end it wants to come out, but
> today I had power to turn off most of the nausea I had. I walked around the
> ward, I even spent ten minutes on the exercise bike. I was even able to
> play a game of cribbage with Caity. She won, but at least I was able to
> focus on the game today.
>
> Oh, and for the record, last night I hit the triple crown of vomiting,
> urinating, and having diarrhea at the same exact time. Since then however
> I've been great. It's quite an interesting sensation when you've just
> finished chemo. You've just spend 7 days in complete and utter hell, and
> even the slightest relief anywhere in the body is a wonderful feeling. The
> doctor's say I should have at least a 5 day period before the worst of the
> procedure hits. This means I get to hang around the hospital pass time
> until the infections, flu's, and the Graft vs Host disease sets in.
>
> For those who don't know about Graft vs Host, here's the Cole's notes
> version. In a liver transplant, my body's immune system would recognize the
> new liver as foreign and would attack. In a bone marrow transplant, I'm
> getting a new immune system which will eventually start to attack all the
> foreign things it finds, like all the rest of me.
>
> Yep, that's right. I'm sitting around waiting to get brutally sick again.
> GVHD likes to attack the kidneys lungs, liver, eyes, and stomach, so when
> that time comes, I'll be put on every known anti-rejection drug on the
> market to protect myself from any long term effects of the transplant.
>
> Damn, I forgot to talk about the transplant itself. Well here's what
> happened.
>
> A nurse woke me up at about quarter after twelve in the morning this
> morning. In her hand was an IV bag filled with one and a half LITRES of bone
> marrow. The only thing I could think of when I saw that much bone marrow
> was how sorry I was for the other guy. My donor had the bone marrow biopsy
> from hell it looked like. On the bright side, the stuff was fresh and there
> was lots of it, making my chances even higher that this will succeed. It
> must have come from somewhere close if it was fresh, so everyone ask around
> to see if someone you or your friends know has just given up one and a half
> liters of fresh A+ bone marrow.
>
> Anyway, over the next three hours, someone else's bone marrow slowly dripped
> into my veins. I really am a mixture of grateful and disgusted feelings
> with the whole process. While I am very happy that yesterday was hopefully
> the brand new start to my life, I am a little disgusted from watching
> someone else's marrow drip into me for three hours. At least with a heart
> transplant, everyone doesn't stand around staring at the donor heart for
> three hours. It goes in and that's that. Not this drip, drip, drip of
> someone else's bits.
>
> On that same token, I want to publicly thank the donor of my new immune
> system. I don't know you at all but I have a feeling that your in Canada
> somewhere. It could be my unique gift of intuition that freaks out everyone
> or just a wild guess. Here's what I think.
>
> 18 year old male.
> Lives in BC or one of the North Western states
> Brown hair, blue eyes.
> 5'10", and 185 pounds
>
> If anyone wants to start a donor pool, that's my pick. And just for the
> record, I have not experienced any ESP from my donor. We are not swapping
> stew recipes with our brainwaves, though I guess some small part of me
> wished we could.
>
> Ok folks, it's 11:00 pm and I need to sleep. But just so you are aware of
> just how focused I am on entertaining you with my wit and prose, I actually
> was typing this as my nurse was drawing blood through my central line.
> That's right baby. Bleeding won't even stop me from my task.
>
> This is getting silly. Goodnight
Adam>
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