I’m home!! I went to Winnipeg for 4 days and ended up staying there for 26 days instead. I now have 3 cats as my mother cannot look after her cat anymore! The cat’s airline ticket cost me $60 to ride under the seat in front of mine. My mother was discharged from hospital yesterday back to the seniors building where she was living prior to the 2 falls. I put in a life alert with a fall detector for her so there will be no more 20 hours on the floor should she fall again. She has to use a walker full-time now anytime she walks. She was very appreciative of all I did for her when she was in hospital like purge her suite of living room furniture she could trip on and injure herself badly, like glass end tables. I threw all of her bedding out and bought her new bedding, as well as safe footwear, etc. I moved everything from the second shelf of all her cupboards, to the first shelf, and gave away her 2 step stools. Ornaments flew out the door as fast as I could pick them up. She was a hoarder of stuff but a very clean “hoarder.” She is so scared of falling again, that she was receptive to me decluttering her place, so I took full advantage of that. I really appreciate all the wonderful friends from GT who supported me during this time. I had to cold turkey my internet connection but I got your posts through Cat, thankfully. My dear Cat who stayed with me on the stem cell collection day and who supported me emotionally during those very painful injections pre-collection date, when I didn’t feel I could go on. Some of the side effects I experienced were chronic headaches that were not relieved by OTC medication. They give you a growth hormone that stimulates your skull and bones to produce stem cells, so your bones ache, and you have nausea and diarrhea. The effects of the injections get worse and worse, day by day. By day three, I had hit a wall and didn’t know if I could continue with them as I was feeling so ill. There was really no choice but to continue them or the person would die, without the transplant. When a person gets to a point of needing a stem cell transplant, they have no other option because they are dying. Long and short of it, was that I produced enough stem cells that they were able to harvest enough stem cells for two complete stem cell transplants for the woman. Because my arm veins could not have withstood a 6 hour collection process, they decided that I would have to have a femoral catheter line, which a surgeon puts in, using local anesthetic. It was so painful that I fainted on the operating table, and I was crying out in pain, and I was panicked and my blood pressure dropped to very low. I had to stay in a recovery room till everything stabilized itself out. From this femoral line I now have pure scarlet bruising across my groin area and abdomen. But this too shall pass. My 20 year old granddaughter moved in with me while I was away, as she only has 2 more months of university this term, and my cats needed looking after. She waited on me hand and foot this evening, as I told her that I needed her to look after me tonight. So thank you to each and everyone of you who supported me during this time. It’s nice to know that I have friends who are there when it counts!! Cat shared an experience with me that I’m sure she’ll remember a long time. LOL! Who knew that I would meet Cat on GT and that she would accompany me on this medical journey to give another woman and those that love her, a possible gift of life. I am the oldest person in Manitoba to donate stem cells to an unrelated recipient. I still can’t get my head around the fact that this woman and I share 9 out of 10 DNA markers, and we’re not related. They destroyed her immune system prior to her getting my stem cells, so do we now have the same DNA?? If both of us agree, a year from now we can communicate. The bone marrow and stem cell registries are linked across the world so she could in effect, live anywhere. Cat and I watched them put my stem cell bag in a cooler to be flown away to the recipient. I posted a lot today because I had a lot to say. I really wouldn’t want to go through this again, though I’m happy I did it. Carole
