Harvest Time- Part II

Okay, so I think I'm ready but, I make no promises that this will make sense to anyone. I just need to write it. It has been 16 days since I went in for surgery, and just over two months since I was told I might possibly save a life. Since the latter, I have not been able to get the thought of my recipient out of my mind.

I was really hoping Aaron would post about this, as he was witness to the entire process except the surgery, so he knows better about what happened than I; but I will tell you what I know.

On October 10 my father and Aaron drove me down to Boston where we checked into the Longwood Best Western. I have to say, we got star treatment. Our rooms were enormous, and we had valet and bellhop services. I felt like a really important person. My dad was beside himself-- those of you who know my dad, Richard, know that he loves special treatment.

After we settled in, we went down to the hotel's restaurant. I was much too worried to eat, but I didn't want my dad or Aaron to worry so I ordered a huge meal and just picked at it. During dinner I got a call from my sister, who immediately said, "you are scared aren't you?" She was the first person to ask me that, and yes, I was!!! (She and I have this telepathy, one would think we are twins!) I talked to her briefly during dinner as she tried to calm my fears. Minutes later Aaron's brother Matt called to wish me luck. He calls me "little one", and I absolutely love that. He too tried to calm my fears and told me there was nothing to worry about. We finished eating and then went upstairs to our rooms.

My whole life I have never been a "sleeper." I call a 5 hour night a good one, but this night, I fell right to sleep; none of the usual tossing and turning business. When our alarm went off at 5:00 am, and I thought, "okay Jessi, time to save a life." (now with the exception of medical professionals, and people in uniform, what "layperson" gets to say that?)

On October 11, at 5:30 am, I checked into Brigham and Woman's Teaching Hospital for my surgery. I was told to go to a waiting room where there were a ton of people for such an early hour. I waited (in utter anticipation) for about 20 minutes for a nurse to come out to get me. I thought I was going in for surgery but, she only took some blood to do yet another infectious disease test, and sent me back to the waiting room. (One thing I can say is that I know for a fact-- by 4 separate testing days-- that I do not have AIDS, HIV, any forms of Hepatitis, Malaria, EEE, West Nile, Mononucleosis, Lice or any other infectious disease for that matter- so that's a nice thing to know.)

At about 6 o'clock am, they called my name and told me that my dad and Aaron could come too. They brought me into a sterile pre-op prep room where there were several beds separated by curtains. The nurse asked me to get undressed, completely, and to put on the robe thing.

About 10 minutes later all these people showed up. At one point I must have had 10 people standing around me. There were people telling me I needed to sign for a proxy (someone to make the decisions should I be unable to), people hooking me up to machines and IVs, my anesthesiologist came in to introduce himself, my attending nurses, my surgeons, the head anesthesiologist, Peg- my Dana Farber associate who oversaw everything, and many curious nurses were stopping by just to see what all the fuss was about. I am seriously not exaggerating here.

I said goodbye to my dad and Aaron, who were given seats near my bed. They gave me some drugs to calm me as they wheeled me to the operating room. Once there, my surgeons and anesthesiologist stood above me, asked me my name, what I was having done, and told me to relax. My anesthesiologist told me that I was going to feel something really cold and I asked, "besides this room?" thinking I was pretty funny. I wasn't awake long enough to hear if anyone laughed at my clever joke. I went under, and what happened after that only the people in the operating room know.

I can tell you what I suspect did happened.

Once I was put to sleep they intubated me (put that tube down my throat so a machine could breath for me) and they catheterized me- I guess because they were going to pump me so full of fluids they didn't want me to piss the bed. Then they rolled my body over so that I was face to the bed, and both surgeons worked simultaneously putting long thick needles through my lower back- using enough pressure to pierce the bone. They did this 3 times on each side, making 6 holes, and withdrew 1 liter of bone marrow. The whole process took about 3 hours.

I will post from the point I woke up-- up until now at a later point. I am still trying to sort that out in head.

We had to be up really early for the procedure.

Even before I am due to have surgery I still insist on being a neat freak and making the bed, and it wasn't even my bed!!

I wanted to pack up before I left. I didn't want my dad or Aaron to have to come back to the room to be responsible for getting all my things.

This was the beginning of the process at the hospital where I was given my hospital bracelet and they took down the phone numbers of the people who were with me.

Me, changing into that robe. The curtain was closed and Aaron thought he would be discreet and snap one of me changing. When will he learn that you can't get anything past me??!!

This is where I was assigning my proxy to, of course, Nicki. Dana Farber gave me a life insurance policy for, I think, $1 million dollars... so if I died-- Nicki would be rich!

After I was all hooked up and ready to go. Sooo nervous!

Someone cracked a joke to lighten the mood, and I think I was pointing at them and saying "good one."