T-Day

Drip, drip, drip.
A veritable Day of Drips.
Not content with six hours of Cyclo and Myco (see yesterday's post) again today, I've also had eight hours of drip either side of the Transplant (four before and four after) to boost the fluid content of my blood, as well as the Transplant itself.  Lots of Simultaneous Dripping to reduce the overall time connected, but still a total of 13 hours in the day hooked up to the Drip Machine.

Two new skills learnt today: sleeping and dressing while connected to a drip.  Neither as difficult as they sound, so long as you're careful...  Thought about attempting a drip-
connected shower too, but decided that would be just too much Excitement for one day. Got to have something to look forward to.

The TBI was a breeze.  Lined up by my tattoos (see Tattooed post of 1st Feb) with lasers, so that it was accurately targeted, I just lay on my back and meditated for 20 minutes to the strains of Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah!  They turned me round once at half time, so that both sides were evenly cooked and done to a turn.  Mustard, anyone? 

The TBI is the medical equivalent of a Tactical Thermo-Nuclear Device.  It kills all the fastest-dividing cells in the body, which takes care of the stem cells in the blood and bone marrow, but also includes the entire lining of the digestive system, from mouth and throat, all the way through the gut to the Other End.  So the most likely side-effects arise anywhere along that tract, from Mouth Ulcers to Montezuma's Revenge.  Can't wait!  Happily the damaged cells are replaced fairly quickly, minimising long-term harm.

Nurse Helen,
the Stem Cells (in the bag at the top),
my Spoons and Me

And then at 440 pm the Transplant itself, which was another drip, though that took just 55 minutes, the least time-consuming part of the whole treatment so far.  But the most colourful.  All the other drips are colourless.  The Transplant cells were a Life-Affirming, Health-Giving, Rejuvenating Blood-Red.  Actually they were rather more like chilli sauce or watery ketchup, but allow me a little poetic licence.  Just astounding to think that they were a vital part of someone else's body less than 24 hours ago.

So far my body has proved amazingly resilient to all this Rough Treatment and apart from a little shortness of breath when the stem cells went in and some fatigue at the end of the day (hardly surprising), I have felt no side-effects.  Astonishing how my heart immediately recognised the difference between all the chemicals we've been pumping in and these alien stem cells; hence the slight shortness of breath.  Anyway, the Alien Invaders are the Home team now, streaming into the system, weapons at the ready, settling into their new bone marrow home (which we hope they find very comfy and well appointed) and ready to deal ruthlessly with any surviving members of the Old Guard who were so brutally bombarded and disarmed this morning.  No, Dixie, I haven't joined the army; I am the Battlefield.  But the worst of the Destruction is over now.  Let the Rebuilding begin!

My Marrow Spoons have been by my side throughout the day, a constant reminder of their mysterious message of Hope and Meaning from beyond this temporary life.  Temporary, but not too short, we hope.

Finally, a big Thank You to everyone sending vibes from their Lurv Lasers.  Or just plain thoughts and prayers.  Not to mention all the texts, emails and blog comments.  All very gratefully received and surely a Valuable Reinforcement of the medical procedure.

The Marrow Spoons

Well, here they are at last, as promised.
And here's the story.

In July 2004, some nine months before I was diagnosed with CLL, my godfather Tom died and left me in his will what appeared to be a rather strange bequest, namely two silver marrow spoons.  Once a rather more common sight on dinner tables than today, marrow spoons are used for extracting the marrow from the bone in meat dishes, the classic example being osso bucco.  When Tom's wife sent them to me, she said she wasn't sure why he had chosen them for me, and although I daresay he wasn't sure himself at the time, they have now assumed a very evident significance.

Aside from the obvious bone marrow connotations, the silver is symbolic too.  First, because silver is traditional for gifts from godparents to godchildren; indeed, some 54 years ago Tom gave me a silver christening mug to celebrate my arrival on the planet.  Second, silver has long been known for its healing properties and is a powerful killer of microbes, both bacterial and viral.  Since Hippocrates first commended it in the 4th century BC, it was widely used for the prevention of infection before antibiotics were discovered, and hospitals, including the Marsden, use it even now, especially for the treatment of burns.  And third, Tom, a distinguished physicist at Cambridge University, studied, wrote and taught about the physics of liquid metals.  Although I don't know whether that included silver, it would be nice to think so.

For more on the healing properties of silver, this is an excellent website:
http://www.uk-cs.co.uk/index.htm

The actual transplant procedure that I will undergo involves no scraping or probing with marrow spoons, I'm glad to say.  However, it will now be clear how charged with Meaning and Mystery those spoons have become.  They are very special to me.  I keep them on my desk and think of Tom often when they wink at me.  He and the spoons will be with me for the Transplant.