and than
and than
the next day
I got out of the sacrament meeting talk... and the baby is still mostly vegitarian.
So... it has been three months. Three months ago we were hoping to be half way through all of this... (again... hands waving in the air).. and now it will be March 4th before we are mostly over all of this... 4 months from now.
Last week my sister Mandy was here donating her stem cells because I need a new immune system. It is really called a bone marrow transplant, but when I say that people assume it is a terrible painful process for the donor. It wasn't a pleasant experience for Mandy... probably not one she wishes to repeat, but they didn't drill into her bones. THey drew her blood for 4 hours to collect stem cells. Her body overproduced stem cells after a series of stem cell producing shots she received for 4 days. The shots made her bones a little achy, but nothing tylenol couldn't help. When they collected her stem cells she had an IV in both arms. Her blood exited one of her arms and returned through the other one, after her stem cells were extracted from the blood. She avoided food and drink Monday morning so she wouldn't have to use a bed pan during the collection. It worked. She didn't have to use a bed pan. Mandy was low on calcium and it caused her to feel light headed during the donation. Something about that made her hands cramp up and made her limbs fall asleep... but she's ok now. Mandy, if you read this and want to clarify, please do so... you can leave a comment... I probably have the details wrong.
It is only THursday and I miss having Mandy around. Little Nathan loved her. In one day she taught him how to high five and patty cake... one day. She is sort of the opposite of Nate and I... Don't worry, I think I'm awesome, but Mandy wins the fun contest hands down. Nate and I are pretty boring... really, we are... I love being boring with Nate, but Mandy is fun... and nice... and funny... and a good person too... and a willing life saver.
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| In the hospital getting a blood transfusion |
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| Sister love bracelet |
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| Hanging out with Mandy. She's cute in this picture, but cuter in real life... She thinks her face looks puffy. They gave her lots of fluids when they took her stem cells. Fluids are not flattering... It does puff people up. Did I mention that I was once pumped with 25lbs of fluids... not nice... Now I hate fluids. For the record, I think Mandy looks great, but she thinks she looks puffy. |
Tanya---I laughed out loud reading this post. I could just hear you talking when you are describing Mandy in the last picture. :) I think you are looking GREAT in these pictures and it seems like you are feeling better than a few months ago. I hope so!!! sounds like you are pretty much "on track" for being done with "this" (and I'll wave my hands in the air just like you did) LOL March is a good time. Springtime--new life---new beginnings---i'ts all symbolic of the new life you will emerge with in the near future! Thanks again for the update. Oh! and I almost forgot to say---I was really surprised at how much you and Mandy look alike in that last pic. I dont think I normally would have thought you 2 resembled each other...but if you look closely at your features---eyes, nose, mouth---I see it so plainly! Both beautiful girls---inside and out!! Sending love!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is really funny. I had to look back at the pic after reading aunt stef comment. I see what she was saying about our features. And to clarify on the procedure- you got it mostly right. It was fine for the first few hrs, but the last half hr.... Think of your limbs all falling asleep and unable to regain feeling. I think I might have panicked a little since I felt paralyzed towards the end. My nervous system was affected thus causing the muscle tightness. But once I calmed down and my dad helped rub my calves and hands to get circulation going it all came back as quickly as it came.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous. (Mandy) Thanks for the clarification. I hope your household survived without you.
DeleteWhat a horrible yet awesome experience for you both. It is such a blessing to have family willing to step in and help out no matter what. I am happy that you were able to spend so much time together and that the donation was such a success. What is the next step Tanya? Are you on schedule for your last round of chemo and then the transplant? Then the long process of keeping you healthy with rebuilding your immune system?
ReplyDeleteMandy from my experiences of donating plasma and the feeling of going numb after only 45 minutes I can only imagine how scary it would have been to go so numb and panic. Glad you have recovered:)
Love you all!
That is right. I am scheduled to go into the hospital next Monday... and to start the last round of chemo on Tuesday. I will be hooked up to the chemo IV continuoulsy for 5 days. On the sixth day, Sunday, I get a break... then on Monday I receive the stem cells. Things are looking good for those dates. My counts are the variable. So far everything is recovering. I had 1000 white blood cells as of last Thursday. Of those white blood cells I had 100 bacteria fighting white blood cells. Those bacteria fighting white blood cells need to be close to 1000 before I get more chemo. Once they start multiplying, they usually multiply by 100-200 a day... So we should be in good shape to start chemo next week... fingers crossed.
DeleteLittle Nathan just pointed to the bald photo of me with Mandy and said, "BABY". Ha. I guess he doesn't remember my bald head. It's August now and my hair is fashionably short. I get compliments all of the time. People don't know that I didn't do this on purpose.
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