Mission Accomplished

Jon got three bags of his own stem cells returned to his body, along with a big dose of Benadryl.  The Benadryl made him instantly sleepy and also made his legs very twitchy.  But the whole transplant only took about half an hour, including a break to check vital signs between each bag.  Then he had to stay there for two hours so they could be sure nothing went wrong.

I checked my notes from the last Day Zero in October 2011.  This one went better, and the chemo days were also better this time. This tells me two things, maybe.  There have been some refinements to the system in the last 11 1/2 years which have helped to stave off the side effects and/or Jon is a different person this time around and this just didn't make him feel as queasy.

We went back to the apartment and had some lunch and then Jon took a nap for a few hours. I went back to the Kaiser pharmacy on my daily errand, picking up more drugs. His drug regimen is getting slightly more complicated as they continue to try to fend off bacteria, fungi and viruses because his immune system is not going to be any help in the next couple of weeks.

Basically, the next two or three weeks will just be check-ups every single day where they look at his blood to see what he needs. They will be propping him up while they wait for the blood counts to drop, hitting bottom at about Day 8 - 10, and then his stem cells will gradually begin to turn back into all the blood parts.

Meanwhile, it is the first night of Passover.  We were not going to be ambitious about it, but we knew we wanted to have a minimal observance. We went through the usual rituals of eating up all the bread at lunchtime, eating all the popcorn, clearing out the most obvious chametz.  Rebecca arrived with matzah (first we had to go and rescue her at a gas station near the stadiums because the truck ran out of gas before it was supposed to ... maybe the fuel pump is not so good anymore. We are all glad it was nothing too complicated.) and I scrounged together a seder plate with most of the essentials.  Since we are basically living in a dorm room with a microwave and a toaster oven, we had to be inventive.  I boiled an egg in the electric kettle.  We cooked asparagus in the microwave and now see how other people do things like that. I made charoset out of apple, cashews, grape juice, sugar -- with only a knife, no cutting board. Luckily I had bought some good horseradish and brisket and mashed potates. Rebecca led the seder, glancing at her phone occasionally to remember all the plagues, or when we were supposed to make the charoset and horseradish sandwiches.  All the flavors tasted right. Parsley and salt water are all you really need to tell you what day it is. We retold the Exodus story and Jon added in something he read yesterday in Ha'aretz about the origins of Moses and Aaron as brothers. It's not what you think. But it doesn't bother Rebecca and me, since we view all of this as a story anyway, not a bunch of facts. This seder was one that would have made Betsy Giller proud, I think. And singing the Shechechyanu felt especially right on Day Zero.

(Our dish inventory includes two forks, one mug, one glass, many butter knives and several lovely glass bowls.  Elijah had to have salt water tonight and he had to share with Miriam. He did not stay long.)

Now I am home for a couple nights.  Rebecca and Jon will have a good time together and I will have a chance to see where all the plants are growing. It feels like we have been gone forever, and it has only been three days. A very successful three days.