Stem cell update

An extra bit on the stem cells:  Remember, these stem cells are my cells, harvested from my bone marrow in December. I got them back Tuesday. 

It was impressive when the cyro-freeze specialist rolled in a cask to my room and pulled out one of my two cassettes of stem cells from liquid nitrogen on Tuesday. Protective gloves, vapor, the whole sci-fi drama. 

I was infused with one cassette of cells, which is now hopefully finding a way back to my bone marrow to engraft and build my new immune system. This takes days. I do not understand the biological process. The cells just know where to go and engraft; back home to the bone marrow. When they do, my immune cell counts will rise and save me. This process has happened with many hundreds of patents before, so i have faith that it will happen with me.

Anaphylactic shock sometimes/rarely happens as a reaction to one of the preservatives with cryo stem cells. It did not happen to me, thank God. The medical team standing by was amply prepared with countermeasures to complications, but they were not needed.

One unavoidable side effect of the stem cell preservative is that I will smell like cream corn for several days. It's not a delicious corn chowder smell. If you've ever worked in or been near a corn canning factory in July, you know this is not nice. I feel sorry for my nurses. They never complain.

Odd bonus: The second cassette of stem cells is not something most patients have. Perhaps because I have dense bones, my abundant stem cell harvest in December gives me an extra cassette in cryo storage for life at Northwestern University. These cells are only useful to me in the unlikely event that I might need an additional bone marrow immunity boost. Sadly, they are matched only to my body and are not useful to anyone else who might need a new immune system. Stem cell harvest is unpleasant, difficult and expensive, so it's a bummer that I can't donate mine. Science just isn't there yet. But who knows what the distant future may bring?