October 3

The second of the two main events happens this morning: The Return of the Stem Cells, the actual transplant. These were extracted from my blood a few weeks ago and are frozen in a couple of ziplocks somewhere. They will be the basis of my new blood. I will be as a baby with a brand new immune system, with all childhood vaccinations wiped out. I get revaccinated in several months. Possible effects during the infusion: nausea, fever, and most interestingly, a strange taste in the mouth that also shows up as a body smell that lasts for a day... described by different parties as corn-like, tomato-soup-like, garlic-like, or metal-like. Fortunately no one has described it as olive-like or asparagus-like. Alicia and Chanone will be observers. Stuff
has arrived. The rolling freezer withe stem cells. A rolling computer. A cart carrying a bunch of stuff. Two registered nurses and two helpers. A nurse is now thawing the bags out and syringing stuff out and then into an IV bag. Bag is hung. Here goes.... They're infusing. My cell phone is ringing. One bag is done. Blood pressure check and temperature check every five minutes. No symptoms yet in my senses, but the other people in the room smell The Smell. One says corn. One says garlic. Alicia says it smells like going into a cafeteria. It's done. Benadryl now going in. I never got the taste thing. No fever. A bit of spaced-out feeling. Paperwork being filled out. It was all pretty anti-climatic, considering what an epochal event this is in my life. One of the nurses says I was a boring patient (no side effects, no Code Blue) except that they've never seen real-time blogging before. They're all gone now. Back to hydration solution. I'm sleepy.