Episode IV: a new beginning

Well, the force has a habit of listening to you when you least expect it to. I haven't posted anything in a while but that doesn't mean that nothing has been happening. Au contraire. For you loyal TV Black Sheep readers out there, yes, you, Mom... You might remember when I posted that my career was in the dumper. Well it was at that time but the universe got wind of that and sent me a candy-gram in the form of a new job offer complete with relocation in the Sunshine state. Yes folks, I am moving to Disney Nation, God's waiting room, the insect capital of the free world...Florida. I will be able to wear shorts and/or a wetsuit year round and choose any one of 100 special interest license plates to slap on my car. Now that's living! The new job is pretty darned good and I am looking forward to starting it in a few weeks. It is a TV engineering gig somewhat like my present but soon-to-be-former job with a couple of minor differences: 1.) The new company actually makes a profit, and 2.) Does not appear to be run by a clique of retarded, drunken baboons. I just wonder how long I can stay out of trouble at the new venue.


I am still awaiting some sort of word on the results of the stem cell transplant. I should hear something any day now. I can only hope that the little buggers are doing their job and making cancer-free blood cells in Dave's (not his real name) body. I hope you get to enjoy many years of long walks on summer nights too, Dave.

Charity begins in the third world

Fri Feb 15, 11:08 AM ET MANAGUA (Reuters)

Shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the American football team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children. Hundreds of shirts and caps, which had been manufactured in advance to celebrate the Patriots' expected victory over the New York Giants, were handed over to children in the southern city of Diriamba. "The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization. World Vision has links with the National Football League, or NFL, and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted "winners" shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl. Winners' shirts and other garments are produced in advance so players and fans can put them on to celebrate immediately after the final whistle of the game. Garments of the losing team are obviously unwanted.

The Giants stunned the previously undefeated Patriots 17-14 in this year's Super Bowl.

Its a good thing they didn't print "19-0 Superbowl Champions" on spent fuel rods from the Seabrook nuke plant.

Postscript

It has been well over a month since I slept off off the side effects of the Neupogen and the long day in the transfusion center. I have since had the chance to put a few more things in perspective. I realized a universal truth that had always crawled around in the back of my head. If you haven't walked a mile in those shoes, you can't know the real truth. Almost all of the people who "get it" when the issue of bone marrow or stem cell donation is discussed are people whose lives have been affected in some way by cancer. Whether they themselves are survivors or a loved one has triumphed or succumbed to the disease. A branch of my extended family has had numerous battles with breast cancer. My father succumbed to cancer. Maybe for reasons such as those, when I was asked to become a stem cell donor there was no internal dialogue, no weighing the pros and cons. I just said, "yes."

From the beginning of this whole process there have been many people who have praised my decision and just a few others who just didn't get it. Someone even said to me, " You don't even know who you're donating too, I'd never do that!" I think of that now and feel terribly sad for that person. I hope that someday they get it.

My partner in all this, the recipient of my stem cells is doing well from the reports I hear. He has not rejected my cells and the doctors are waiting for signs of Chimerism, the appearance of cells bearing my own DNA signature alongside cells bearing the patients DNA within his blood. As I understand it, that's a good thing. I am looking forward to hearing more reports about his progress and hope for the day when I can shake his hand.

This is life

I just woke up and it is a grey, wet day down here next to the lake. I spent the whole day yesterday in the hospital hooked up to the apheresis machine and watched blood stream out of my left arm, through a complicated network of tubes and pumps and back into my right arm. As the pumps turned and clicked, my stem cells were being separated out by a centrifuge that hummed deep in the heart of the machine. The side effects of the Neupogen finally made themselves apparent. All my joints ached, especially my hips. I had a nasty headache and I was dizzy enough to walk into at least one wall. After six hours of trying to read a novel one-handed, trying to catch a nap and some idle chatting, I watched as the nurse and technicians carefully disconnected a plastic bag from the machine about half full of what looked like Campbell's cream of tomato soup and write some numbers on the label. The nurse placed it on the tray table in front of me, gently patted it and said to me in her beautiful Ukraine accent, " This is life."

For the first time since this journey began I really felt proud of what I had done. Until now I had tried to politely accept everyone's praise and hide my embarrasment because I hadn't really done anything, yet. But it is over now for me and that bag full of life is hanging over a machine in some other hospital transfusion center. That machine has a complicated network of tubes with another man's arms connected to them and my stem cells are making the journey to their new home. I can only hope that they work as hard in his body as they did in mine.

Go to work guys...I'm taking a nap.

The last mile

I started receiving the Neupogen injections yesterday. It is used primarily to stimulate the production of white blood cells within bone marrow. It will also stimulate the production of stem cells and set them free into my blood stream so an apheresis machine can spin them around and make them dizzy enough to make them want to jump into a plastic bag. If you're a medical professional reading this you have my apologies. I know that my explanations are the equivalent of baby talk but I never went to med school, barely passed any biology course and need to simplify all this down to a level where I can wrap my own head around all this. Speaking of medical professionals, the doctors, nurses, counselors and technicians who have guided me through this process have been so kind and loving that I get those little tears in the corner of my eyes when they aren't looking. (Please don't tell anyone!)

The potential side effects of the Neupogen have not manifested yet. I haven't grown a third eye in the back of my head and I don't feel any compulsion to go out and buy a really sharp axe. So again, I feel embarrased when I get praise for doing this. This whole process dating back to early November has been a cakewalk for me and all I am doing here is supplying some raw material.

The real praise goes to all those people who really work hard at this and ultimately to the one person who really is the bravest of all here, The anonymous guy I call Dave, the leukemia patient who is doing me the honor of accepting the stem cells I am offering.