Day Zero: Happy Birthday to meee!

I always wanted to have the possibility to have birthday parties in summer. Being born in January made that quite difficult (still pretty sure my birthday parties rock every year, awwyeah! ;)). But as of today I also can have a party on 8^th July, for this is the day I received my autologous stem cell transplant, marking also the end of first-line treatment of my cancer.

So, here´s to me and my second Birthday today! (You know I´m just celebrating this so much cause I hope to double the presents and parties in the next years, right? ;))

 I already knew that today was special when I woke up and I didn´t have to make my bed but a nurse would do that and for rounds the head of this station also showed up (didn´t change the course of conversation though ;)). Shortly after breakfast I was hooked up to a vital signs monitor and getting different meds which should suppress any allergic reactions to the transplant. 

 

Then Dr Müller came in with a bag so small, deeply frozen, looking like Daiquiri. “Is this your signature on the bag?”- Yeah sure, but are YOU sure it´s stem cells and not some frozen cocktail? Because it looks just like it! For a second I´m sure I saw a smile on her face cause she also was thinking bout drinking cocktails rather than transplanting stem cells but we´re here for business. So I stuck a bonbon in my mouth (to avoid tasting the DMSO which is an anti-freezing agent used for the preparation of such samples. But I guess working with it in the lab for years has made me a bit immune to the taste cause there was just a short moment of reconnaissance "Ah, DMSO!" and then it was gone), and waited for the transfusion to be over. Which was after about ten minutes. Seriously, ten minutes! Talkin bout anti-climactic here! They´ve already told me several times how royally awesome I harvested my cells so today the concentration of the cells was so high in this one small bag that it was over so very quickly. Other patients usually need three to five bags, taking up to 30 minutes each.

The rest of the day I spent mostly sleeping, but of course I didn´t let the opportunity pass to have a small birthday party with ice cream and coke. Aw yeah, having cancer sometimes is awesome! ;) 

Pheeww, that was one hell of a party!!

So now I´ll go back to sleep cause I´m so very tired. But not without crowning myself first to Anja Hellborn of the House Meininger, the first of her name, Queen of the Harvest, Kicker of Cancer´s Butt. Now, where are my dragooons??