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.