Day +35 and +36 More transitions

(Posted by Jim, despite what it says at the bottom.)

Yesterday was a big day -- several hours at the hospital followed by a quick move from the Marriott Residence Inn to the 5-bedroom house in Monrovia.  It was tiring for all involved, which would be Sile and me.

First the good news... the very best news that we can all get.  Dr. Nakamura said Sile's "numbers" were "beautiful".  He's going to do a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday to determine how much of the  marrow in Sile is Sile's and how much is Frank's.  He's expecting that something north of 90% will be Frank's.  We met a woman in the hospital yesterday who said her marrow was 100% her donor's, a terrific result.

Sile is still trying to get used to the idea that she has part of Frank inside her.  It's a lot easier to visualize, she said, when you think about a kidney or heart transplant.  There's major surgery; one part comes out; and someone else's part goes in.  With bone marrow, it's not something you think of as an organ (until you need a new one, of course) so it's harder to conceptualize.

This all came up this morning when Sile suddenly remembered that she had not yet received her monthly vitamin B12 injection.  She put it on her list of things to talk to Dr. N about and then said, "Wait a minute.  I wonder if I even need that any more.  Now that I have Frank's marrow I might not have to get that."  This is the second possible unexpected benefit from the transplant.  Even before Sile came to Southern California, her allergist told her that she might not need to take athsma medication after the transplant.  After all, athsma is essentially a reaction of the immune system and Frank's immune system may not be as sensitive as Sile's.

A third benefit of the transplant, totally unmentioned by the medical staff, is that Sile is free to live a life of crime, certain that she cannot be convicted on DNA evidence alone...as long as her DNA sample comes from blood.  The DNA in that sample will be a perfect match for Frank, not Sile.  So Frank...If you see the guys in suits with little white earpiece cords curling into their jackets knocking on your front door, you probably should ask them to wait just a minute while you call your sister and see what she's been up to.

The move to Monrovia was a bit more eventful than it should have been.  I found out later that we arrived pretty much just as the workmen left.  I also found out that Amanda, our landlady for the next 2 months. had been scrambling all week to get the house deep cleaned and get one of the showers fixed.  The previous tenants had been in the house for 5 months and left, according to Amanda, piles of trash in every room.  I had told Amanda why we were renting the house and about our concerns regarding cleanliness, so she was apalled at the mess left by the previous tenants.

She was in such a rush to get the plumbing and cleaning done that she didn't inspect the contents of the kitchen before we arrived.  Amanda greeted us and left and we began to unpack our groceries.  I suddenly realized that I couldn't find any cutlery.  There were plenty of little pottery tchotkes but no knives or forks!  Plenty of leftover staples (oil, flour, salt) but no glasses!  To make a long story short, I went to WalMart (5 minutes away) and partially restocked the kitchen so we had enough dishes and cutlery to make dinner.  I'm going back to WalMart later today to finish.  Amanda was horribly apologetic and, in fact, when I later delved into the dark recesses of the cupboards I found some cutlery, so the situation was not quite as dire as I first thought.

The house is a 1908 Craftsman, with all the charm and all the problems that come with an old house.  The house is big (5 bedrooms) and was used as a board-and-care home for elderly people for 20 years or so.  As a result, the mechanical systems (plumbing and electricity) are pretty up to date.  Nonetheless, there are the usual number of electric outlets that you find in each room of a 1908 house (one most of the time, 2 if the builder was being extravagant) and a 100-year history of "improvements".  The house is comfortable enough, though, and we feel lucky to have found it.

The final bit of big news today is that I'm retiring as a "Sile Transplanted" blogger.  Though I will be here until Tuesday, long enough to pass the baton to Hazel, Sile's sister in law, Sile is well enough at this point to take over her own blog.  Hurray, hurray, hurray!