So, I went down to Indy for the transplant and was admitted to the hospital June 19, 2001. We had to go over to Riley (the children's hospital) and get a little red wagon to haul all my stuff in -- I was determined not to get bored. I spent the morning putting my junk away and putting my window decals all over the door to my room (a sliding glass door) and on my window. Most of the window decals were of DC superheroes that I printed out from Kryptcom's site. The staff just loved it. I was hooked up to the IV in relatively short order and we started the chemo.

I remember about three things from the next two days (Wednesday and Thursday): I can remember throwing up once; a nurse asking me if I wanted her to wash my clothes (I'm allergic to Tide and she offered to wash them in baby shampoo); a nurse taking blood samples from both ends of my central line and from my port. I remember nothing else from those two days. The nurses were giving me lots of Ativan, which, I understand, kind of has that effect. By Friday, I was more or less doing all right. A bit weak and tired, but coherent again. That was the last day of the chemo. Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be days of rest (from the chemo), and I watched a lot of Nickelodeon. I just discovered Rocket Power, and that's a great cartoon!! I've got to get cable.

I got my stem cells back on Monday, 6/25. It took a whopping 15 minutes and it just went in through my central line like a blood transfusion. No problem.

By that day, I was bored. I was hyper and bouncing off the walls, unable to concentrate long enough to read (the horror!). I brought various crafts to keep me busy and I brought my laptop as well, but I was still bored. There's just no cure for boredom when you can't really leave a small room. I watched lots of Nickelodeon and some videos I had tapes of Batman: The Animated Series.

My mom was there later the day I got my stem cells back and came by all that week. My blood counts finally started dropping as they were supposed to from the chemo and I had to have platelets on Saturday and again on Monday. Like many people, I seem to be allergic to blood products (I think it's something they put in the platelets to keep them from clotting in the bag before you get them), so they had to give me IV Benedryl before giving me the platelets. Boy, does that knock you out! I also had to have Neupegen shots every day. While my counts were still low, I got an incredible bruise from one of the shots. It was easily three inches in diameter and black as could be. It didn't hurt, though, and I didn't even know it was there until the next morning. That's what happens when your platelets drop down to about 4,000! The second time I had platelets, I also had a terrible bloody nose that morning: it lasted about an hour and a half all told. Incredible.

I walked around the ward every day (with a surgical mask and gloves on) after that first Friday. Usually I walked for 15 minutes or so about 3-5 times a day. The nurses kept "threatening" to sedate me if I didn't stay in my room! (Actually, they were quite glad to see someone who had energy and felt all right. They were just teasing me.)

I can remember leaving my room around 6:30 one evening, looking for my dinner. The nurses had gotten really busy with a few patients who were having a few problems and dinner was half an hour late. When I asked where dinner was, I thought all the nurses were going to fall over. They claimed that no one had ever actually asked for dinner before. So many people feel nauseous and weak and NOT hungry after the chemo and transplant that they were stunned when I was hungry.

Boredom City >>