A Bit of a Birthday, My Immune System's First 365 Days

On April 18, 2012 I was stuck in a hospital room. We were scheduled to do my stem cell transplant that day, but we knew it would be late in the evening. The kind donor whose stem cells were the best match for me was a woman I'd never seen or spoken to who lived in Germany. She would be donating her cells there and they would be flown internationally to me.

What is very much a miracle of modern science seems rather anti-climactic when it's actually happening. Receiving a stem cell transplant looks a lot to the untrained eye like getting blood. There are small bags of pink-ish fluid (the stem cells) that are hung from an IV pole and given to you just like you are getting blood.

Just a few LIFE SAVING stem cells, recently flown over from Germany.

There's no anasthesia, no surgery, no special pain or discomfort. You just lay in bed and the building blocks of your new immune system drip into you. It's a long and mostly uneventful process...but it is one of the most amazing procedures human beings are performing these days and it's certainly saved more than just one life.

And so as the hours stretched from late on the eighteenth into the wee hours of the nineteenth, a new immune system was born. An immune system that would hopefully (a) not attack my own body so badly that it crippled or killed me and (b) attack any new cancer that would try to grow and quash it. It was and is the opportunity for life, in the face of a disease that would certainly take that away from me.

Three hundred and sixty five days ago I was terrified...and sick...and very hopeful. Today? Well I'm still a bit terrified. We've had some bumps over the past year and mine is an aggressive cancer with few further treatment options, and so I think one necessarily carries a burden of worry. And I'm still a bit sick; the GvH from the transplant making the inside of my mouth raw and sore in addition to causing other issues. But most of all I am immensely hopeful...and grateful...for this last year and for the future.

I've had 365 more days to watch my daughter grow and mature. To enjoy her successes and be supportive at times she's had less success. She has made art and had boyfriends and joined her school's winter guard team. And I was able to be here for that. To go to her competitions and bring her flowers and stuffed animals for a job well done.

See what I mean about the growing and the maturing!

I've also had another year to spend with my friends and my family, again through both highs and lows. I took my (then) 82 year old grandma to vote in her very first election. I also took her to have cataract surgery. Friends and I have gone to concerts, craft stores, and baseball games. We've also hung out around fire pits and in living rooms. They've come to visit and I've gone to see them. And I've never been more supported and loved.

Mammaw on election day.

Without this year I would have missed all of this, and even just the thought of that breaks my heart.

I guess what I'm saying is that for my one year transplant birthday, I want to celebrate all the extra love I've been given in 365 days. The experiences that would have been stolen from me. The wonderful-beyond-words people who make up my world and are the reason this past year and every year are precious. I've gotten to have it all.

If you are between the ages of 18 and 44 and you haven't already, please register to be a stem cell or bone marrow donor at http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx    And encourage others to register! You are more than welcome to share my story and this post.

Give the gift of birthdays. It's free and easy (you are sent a kit and swab the inside of your cheek). You could give someone 365 more days. You could give them years. You could give them a life filled with love and friends and joy. Just like you've given me. Thank you.