Wednesday, August 29, 2007

My Heart's Different Than Yours

Greetings from the Family Waiting Room at Brigham & Women's Hospital where I'm waiting to be admitted. Marty and I left the house at 5:00 this morning and headed to Boston for a pre-transplant procedure scheduled for 8:30. The plan was that I would have two catheters implanted in my chest, through which I'll be receiving the many drugs that will prepare me for the stem cell transplant. However, due to an extremely rare (but not harmful) anatomical quirk with where one of my carotid arteries enters my heart, I received just one catheter. According to my doctor, this will not pose any problems with my treatment. The catheter has three lines coming out of it instead of the usual two. One catheter or two, I still feel like Frankenstein.

Since my room on the Transplant Unit wasn't ready (what is this, a hotel with 3 pm check-in?), Marty and I went out to lunch a couple of blocks from the hospital. This was an unexpected pleasure and certainly beat eating mystery food off a tray. I made sure to choose henceforth forbidden foods: lettuce, fresh tomatoes, raw carrots, smoked turkey and blue cheese. I will not be dining in restaurants for a long time.

There's nothing else to report at the moment. Tomorrow's my first day of chemotherapy. Let's hope it doesn't make me too bilious.

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