7.6.15

Happy re-birthday to me.
Todays the day. Technically its not my re-birthday yet as I've not received my little life savers yet, but they are in da house!
Lets go back to this morning. I have spent all morning trying to catch up on missed sleep. It makes me very crotchety if i don't get my sleep.
I would like to thank the bright spark who ordered in metal pedal bins. All I've heard all morning is 'bang, bang, bang'. People knocking on the door. Trolleys up and down the corridor which i know can't be helped. But those bins.........
So im in stroppy ish mood. My mind wandered towards food. What delicacy have i ordered today? A light bulb moment. As I've been disconnected from the drip until my cells are ready, i decided to take a visit to Costa. I may be neutropenic soon and i won't be able to leave my room for 3 weeks.
So off i trot, huffing and puffing all the way. Did i say, I'm very very anaemic. My Hb is 81 and it should be 120 ish. Thats why i was so puffy, as well as the chemo.  I stood in front of the sandwiches trying to find the sausage and balsamic onion toastie. Took me a while but there it was. I was elated. Took it to the counter for toasting. £3.90, but i don't care. I throw caution to the wind when skipping hospital food.
And then there was the lovely Linzi who also recognised my head from behind (Dr Jack said that to me when i had an appointment with him 2 weeks ago!). She was armed with pineapple for the benefit of my poorly mouth. Not too bad at the mo, hoping the darned ice pops did the trick.
So here is a pic of my wonderful lunch.

And yes, it did cause happiness. And the fingers of pineapple did too.
So here i sit feeling satisfied, knowing my cells are ready and waiting. Not sure how long it will take, how many bags i will get, how it will affect me, but its another step forward.
So here goes.

So this is the container used to transport the cells, full of dry ice.

                                         And this is what happens when the lid is removed.

The bag of cells are frozen solid and have to be held with special gloves.

                                                    Paul and Sammie doing the admin.

                                                 The cells are placed in a boiler to defrost.

And here they are. They have to be used within 15 minutes or they turn toxic. The amount of cells needed is 200000000 (200 million). If you recall, i was superwoman and made absolutely loads of the beggars. In this bag alone there is 450000000 (450 million), and i have 2 more bags frozen with the same amount. I believe i signed a form to say they could be used for research if theres any left that i don't need. I think i should reimbursed for all my efforts!

So thats me done. Ive been grafted. Now time for the cells to do their thing and make me better again.  The sooner the better!