Monday, June 16, 2008

TRANSPLANT DAY......My New Birthday

Today is May 15, 2008, my actual Transplant Day. In the Bone Marrow Transplant World, they also call this my "New Birthday". It is a day when I am reborn. A day when I receive all new, what is really and truly a new life because life comes from our blood cells. Wow....pretty awesome when you think about it physiologically. I am feeling a bit punky from the chemo or the neupogen shots as I have a headache and some nausea and vomiting.......not off the chart, mind you, just some but it's pretty annoying. When I got to the BMT clinic today I went through the usual giving of the blood sacrifice :) and then went into a room that, just like on chemo days was mine all mine for the day and again was assigned my own nurse, Vicky who was with me all day long. She never left my room! Her job was to watch me like a hawk for any side effects of the transplant. They told me it's not so much the cells being transplanted that cause the problems, but the DMSO that they were preserved and frozen in that alot of people have a reaction to. I had absolutely no problems today during the transplant. No adverse reactions......yay! While I was in Room 18 with Vicky, I told Mom and Kate to go out to lunch or something as they also never left my side and since I was there for the duration of the procedure, I wanted them to get a break and get out of that clinic environment for a bit. They were gone for an hour or so and had some lunch and then we had my (surprise to me) "Birthday Party"!! I couldn't believe they came back with Bags full of presents and cards for me, to celebrate my new Birthday. Some of the gifts were "real" ones and others were jokes......I had the best time opening them and I've uploaded a couple new photos, one of which I'm wearing my Birthday "Princess Crown".....yep.....got one of those.......and I'm also wearing a pair of glasses with the "eyebrows" attached in preparation for when I lose my own eyebrows! In addition to the beautiful crown to wear and the above described beautiful eyebrows I also got a set of false eyelashes to wear.....again...in preparation for when I lose mine.......I got a poster to color that has a freaky "Super Hero" girl on it to remind me that I AM a Superhero! I also got 3 cards from my sis and 3 from my mom, all of which were a riot. We all laughed so hard when I was opening my presents and poor nurse Vicky......well, let's just say she's probably never met a funnier crew than us. She was also laughing hard!! It's a damn good thing we find each other so entertaining and amusing because we sure have laughed alot for going through such a life threatening/changing time, yet, ya know.......that's just the way we are and we're not gonna let a little Bone marrow transplant, change us or spoil our time together. Screw that.......we're here together to beat this thing and one way IS with humor AND each other. So take that Multiple Myeloma......you have some formidable foes with these "Glosson" girls on your hands! After 8 hours I got to go home with instructions to come back tomorrow around 10:00am. Will update again tomorrow.............

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jan !!! We are all pulling for you here in Kansas...We love You

Love Tam