Happy Birthday (day 0)

At M. D. Anderson, the stem cell transplant people call the day that a person receives a stem cell transplant that person's second birthday. One of the nurses congratulated me on my second birthday, and I thanked her but told her it was my third birthday. When she gave me a puzzled look, I told her that my second birthday was when I became a Christian.

At any rate, the day that the stem cells are infused is a big day. So I used my computer to take a couple of pictures to mark the occasion. There were five bags of cells to be infused. The doctor was here for most of the first bag, but he left the rest of the infusion to my nurse. She stayed in the room with me the whole time, monitoring my vital signs frequently.

After the infusions, which took about 1.5 hours, I was pretty much out of it because of the steroids and the benedryl that they gave me. Even today I have been quite drowsy and listless. I hope that tonight I can sleep off the generally bad way I have been feeling. As with the earlier chemo, I have no appetite and have an "on the edge of nausea" feeling. At any rate, here are the promised photos.

An Agonizing Episode

I cannot explain many of my character flaws, and I especially cannot explain this one. But it is formost in my mind now -- I really dislike having to get ready for a shower. I have even been known to work in my shop all day, getting covered with sweat and sawdust, and then at bedtime finding some excuse to delay my shower until in the morning, at which time I find that I do not need a shower. So you can imagine my consternation when I was informed that I have to take a shower every day while in the hospital.

Another thing that I really dislike is turning off the water when I am taking a shower. I love soaking in the nice warm water and just relaxing. Okay, today I finally forced myself to get in the shower for my daily cleansing. (Incidentally, I am glad that during this hospital confinement I actually get to shower and not just take a sponge bath like the last time I was in here for a month!) But today before I finished showering, my tower starts beeping!!! I must call a nurse to take care of this. You see, I have to be connected to the tower even when showering. So I must quickly rinse off and forgo the pleasure of soaking, or else have her come hang a new bag on my tower while I am pleasantly soaking in the shower.

Life gets tedious, don't it! By the way, I did not call the nurse until I quickly rinsed, dried, and clothed myself. No soaking today.

PS If anyone can explain my "shower disorder" I would love to hear the explanation.