
Living to 100 Days - oglowo3
https://zenpsychiatry.com/living-to-100-days/
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dtawfik1
Wow:

While I waited I wrote my will and made an Advanced Directive. There was a
question where you could specify what you’d want to happen to your body after
you died. I never thought I’d care about such a thing—why would I? I’d be dead
anyway. But when I really imagined it, I did care. I wanted to be buried in a
Jewish cemetery, somewhere nearby so the people who cared about me could
visit. I didn’t want to be forgotten.

But… none of that happened because the tumor shrank with chemo, and I went
into remission. Then I fretted about finding a match on the bone marrow
registry, but there she was—my little German angel. Then I worried she’d
change her mind, or that the stem cells would get lost in transit (she donated
her cells in Germany before they were couriered to Los Angeles).

I worried when I was admitted to the hospital while I got total body
irradiation and high dose chemotherapy to eradicate my immune system and
prepare me for transplant. I worried right up until I saw with my own eyes the
bag of cells hanging off the IV pole as they were infused into my body. Now, I
only had to wait and see if the cells took, or if a I developed a life-
threatening infection, or if I got graft versus host disease, when the donor’s
cells attack your own body, which can have serious consequences.

But… none of that happened, either. Sure, I felt like shit in the hospital,
but I didn’t have any major complications and after a month I got to go home.
I worried about infection but I didn’t get one. I wasn’t supposed to eat
takeout but one day I was craving pizza so my mom and I ordered delivery and I
ate the pizza and nothing bad happened (we did have to hide the pizza box
evidence from my husband because he had an eagle eye on me to make sure I
followed all the rules, which I found adorable. I’ve never seen someone use so
much Purell in their life).

