Help Vinay & Sameer

It’s Day -1…one more day till I’m born! Things have been going exceptionally well. As part of the preparatory regimen, I’ve been through two days of chemo and three days of total body irradiation (TBI). And, with God’s grace, there have been almost no negative effects!

I consider myself extremely lucky. I’ve had near normal energy levels and no pain or discomfort. There haven’t been any significant GI issues yet (no diarrhea either!), although drier foods taste really chalky in my mouth. But that’s hardly anything to complain about considering what my body’s been through! I’m not out of the woods yet. Days +4 through 10 will likely be rougher since that’s when my old immune system will have completely died and the new one will still be engrafting.

I found out today that my cells are slated to arrive on a 9.30pm flight at Sea-Tac Airport tomorrow. (Why they’re arriving so late is puzzling since they are being harvested today and coming overnight.) They will then go to the SCCA for processing and arrive at the UW for infusion around midnight. I’m hoping they arrive before midnight so that I can share my new birthday with Gandhiji’s (Oct 2nd)!

Until then, we are enjoying the hospital food, trying to return phone calls from friends, and continuing to get some work done. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the reason cancer patients are bald is to maximize their Kissable Surface Area (KSA)! Isn’t that obvious??