If I must say so myself, Justin isn't half bad at the blogging gig, even if he is a bit reticent. I'm back! Did you miss me? There is so much to say about this whole process, both good things and bad, but overall I have made the start of a very quick recovery. In fact, multiple nurses and doctors who saw me the last few days have commented about how I shouldn't feel as good as I do right now. In your face, modern medicine. Seriously, though, the road is still long and arduous. I am suffering from fatigue, which is extremely annoying. I can do a lot more than most people in my condition but it is far below my normal standard. To add insult to injury, after three weeks of eating roughly 600-800 calories a day, I only lost 6 lbs while in the hospital. Typical transplant weight loss was one of the few silver linings of this whole ordeal, but alas, in true Katie fashion I have bucked the trend. The other negative is that my taste buds have been effected, effectively being muted. Everything just tastes kind of bland, which on the upside might lead to more post-transplant weight loss. A girl can dream.
I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks. All kidding aside, the emotional, physical, and spiritual drain of this whole process is staggering. I am so very sick and tired of being sick and tired. But this too shall pass. Being home is the best. There is nothing better than being able to sleep the whole night unmolested by nurses. Even Justin is better than that. And it is very lovely not to have to deposit all my bodily waste into plastic basins. It is stupendous not to be hooked up to an iv.
One thing that it has awakened in me, however, is a real need to campaign for people to register to be bone marrow donors. I was very fortunate to be in a position where I could donate to myself my own stem cells for transplant, but there are many others who aren't that fortunate. As I write today, a lovely lady named Susan sits in an O.C. hospital waiting for a bone marrow transplant. She is in her early 30's and was just recently diagnosed with leukemia. Her best chance to beat this thing is to get a bone marrow transplant, but the fact is that the registry is relatively small because many people are either afraid of or unaware of how to become donors. To be in the database simply requires one to give a blood sample or a swab of your cheek. It doesn't require any bone marrow up front. I know that many of you have read about my unpleasant experiences with bone marrow samples, but it's different if you are a donor. According to the National Marrow Donor Program, "Bone marrow donation is a surgical procedure. While you receive anesthesia, doctors use special, hollow needles to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of your pelvic bones." So, when you donate you are asleep the whole time, and for a little while afterward, you are a little sore. Donating stem cells is even easier.
It's so easy to give someone else the gift of life, and I hope some of you might think of getting registered. It's easy to do; just go on the National Marrow Donor Program website, www.marrow.org. Thanks for sticking with me the past couple of weeks. I hope that the good news keeps on rolling.
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1 comment:
Prayers and Dads always produce miracles!
Glad your Dad is there - but, since you came home early, is he cooking? He makes a pretty mean tuna salad. You might want to hide the pressure cooker though - remember, all of his pressure cooking stories end with "and then I had to repaint the kitchen!"
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