On June 8, I left my house in northern New Mexico headed to Albuquerque to fly to Georgia to donate stem cells to my little brother who has bone marrow cancer similar to leukemia. About 50 miles down the road the transmission in the Chevy quit. one of the cooling lines was out of the trans pumping all my oil on the ground. Got ahold of Pablo and he closed his shop and towed me to his house, then stole his wife's car and got me to the airport just in time. Seemed like a rough start but sailed the rest of the way. Started the daily injections that cause me to grow stem cell and release them into my blood. The pamphlets said that there might be light bone aches. After two days I felt like I was in a bar fight and every body in the bar beat and stomped me until they got tired. But I toughed it out until the day of collection, when I had to be at the Hospital buy 06:00 so I could wait till 08:00 to get a central line in my carotid artery which I think they drove in with a hammer but I was stoned enough I didn't care. Then off for one more shot, then finally in to donate, A cute nurse wearing a rain coat attached all 4 of the lines coming out of my neck to my personal centrifuge.
The raincoat she put on every time she handled my lines worried me a bit. Other than my right wrist and elbow hurting more and more a boring day. Then the lab called to say we didn't get enough stem cells, so back again tomorrow. By the time I got there I was carrying my right arm it hurt so bad. They hooked me back to the machine and had a Doc look at my arm got sympathy and Tramadol. But later got a call that we had enough and she pulled the iv out of my neck, made me a little nervous when she that if it started bleeding to put a finger over it and go to the nearest ER cause I could bleed out in about 3 minutes through a open carotid. My arm woke me up about midnight with incredible pain that kept me up all night. Went back to the transplant clinic and they decided I had gout in my arm had never heard of gout anywhere but the foot or kidney stones, but the doc said that while donating the chair kept my legs higher than my arms. The next day I was packing to fly home and got got a frantic call from my daughter that the transplant clinic called and I had an rare dangerous infection. I had given them my cell number a half dozen times so they called the place I wasn't. I called them and they said that a rare gam negative infection showed up in my stem cells and I needed to get right to the main hospital. So I called my sister-in-law and she arranged a ride to the hospital. and led me right to an isolation room didn't even go through admitting. Standard infectious disease room with a changing and scrubbing room where they could gown, mask and bootie up before coming in. Immediately hooked me to a tree of antibiotics that the nurse said were industrial strength, They had me more than a little worried! I have had broken bones that didn't hurt as bad as my arm! I couldn't get them to give me enough pain meds, couldn't more than a few minutes at a time and if I did get to sleep they woke me up to draw blood. After 3 days of me bitching screaming and crying they still hadn't found any infection in my blood or treated my gout!! That night they finally started treating my gout and gave me some oxycontin Actually slept a little that night! The infectious disease doctor finally showed up a few days later and he politely said that they were all morons and finally talked them into discontinuing the antibiotics for 2 days to see if I got worse. Of course I got better they were treating my gout! They finally decided that it was a lab error or contamination and gout so they let me escape. By then Dianne had cancelled my return flight so it looks like I will fly home on the 4th 4 days short of a month and they still don't know if they can use the cells I donated!!!!!!! It seems through the drug haze like maybe Pablo said my Chevy was fixed! And my little brother said that there is nothing like good quality family time.
