Wednesday, May 2, 2007

OH MY GOSH

Boy do I have a paddle ready for Nancy and Amy for not informing me properly. People if you ever have a temp catheter placed in your neck...beware it hurts like hell. Ok, the going in was not bad bc I asked them to sedate me. I had been puking all morning and I was not up for watching them stick a big needle in my neck. So, we get the line placed and go downstairs to the room that I have my cells collected in. There are pics below by the way. They hook me up to this machine and we basically wait for about 4 hrs for the collection to finish. We watched tv, Amy visited for a minute, and mom, Ang and I just talked about nonsense. Ang had to leave at 3 to catch a plane back home so she missed the exciting/embarassing moment. Before they remove the line, they send the cells up to be counted to see if you have to come back the next day. I needed 2 million cells...and brace yourselves....I collected 31 million. This is no typo. I knew those boogers were mass producing because I felt like my bones were breaking the night before. Ok, so now that I have all the cells, the nurse comes in to remove the line. Yes, they remove it without any local. She first removed the two stitches that held the line and then told me she was going to count to three and that I needed to push down like I was going to have a bowel movement on the third count. Do a practice one she said....one, two, three and I poot. Yes out loud! Talk about embarassed. I just farted on my nurse. LOL Again and on three she pulled out this 10" tube that felt like it came from me toes. I screamed the entire time it was coming out. Hurt like a son of a b$%^&. Man can they not find a better way to do this. Oh yeah and after all of that mom said "I feel pale" and Liz and I looked over at her and yep she was pale allright. She went to the bathroom and ran some cold water to cool off. She did manage to not get sick. Sorry mom for putting you through this!
Mom and I left the office, went back to the hotel and packed our things to come home the following day. Yippeee
Here is a sweet moment before I came home. In the hotel we had the kindest cleaning lady that did not speak any English. She came in everyday with a big smile on her face and ready to go. We would always bag our trash for her and have it ready to go (I know she has to work her butt off for little to nothing) and since she was so sweet we did not mind helping her out. Anyway, I am sure she knew something was going on with me with all the meds around and one day when she came to clean I was preparing one of my shots. She managed to tell us that she was going to be off the next day when we told her she could wait till the next day to change the sheets, so mom and I decided to find her and tip her in case we left early. She thanked mom over and over. So of course we did not see her the next day, but the following day (the day we were leaving) there was a knock on the door. When mom answered their she stood with a dozen pink roses in her hand and she came over to give them to me. She could not really communicate much except she was thinking of me and wanted me to have them. Look at how God touches us. Someone that does not know me, probably works for pennies, and only has one day off a week took the time to do something kind for a stranger. Do you know what this did for me? You just cannot imagine. I sat down and thought for a minute and decided to write her a little note. I got online and had it translated and basically I told her what disease I was fighting and thanked her for thinking of me and for her prayers. I told her I would keep her and her family in my prayers and some other sweet thoughts. Anyway, mom went to give her the note and she could not believe I had written something in spanish. LOL little did she know. We were leaving and I put the flowers in the front of my backpack and they made it the 2hr flight, the three hr drive home and hrs on the cabinet while I searched for a vase...all of this with no water and they still look beautiful. Thank you Guadalupe. I still can't believe she did that for me.
I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings. Write you soon.

Cool Slideshows