That same day, 20 years later my mom celebrated her new birthday also known as Day Zero or the day of her bone marrow transplant. Her brother Chapin sat in a chair for nine hours with one needle stuck in his left arm and another stuck in his right hand. Blood came out, traveled through a super high-tech machine, and reentered his body leaving behind the "buffer layer" full of stem cells, white blood cells and platelets.
After the bag of salmon colored cells spent a bit of time in the lab, the nurses on the 11th floor started to medicate my mom. Benadryl, steroids, Tylenol, and saline solution coated her veins before they brought in her soon-to-be new immune system.
We had a short window of opportunity to bring out a coffee, Heath Bar ice cream cake and sing "Happy New Birthday"! Here she is, my unbelievably, strong-willed mom keeping a gorgeous smile throughout her long road to freedom!
No comments:
Post a Comment