Message from Doug - T-minus 7 days to transplant

Hello All,

Just wanted to give a heads up on Christine.

I went to see her today to drop off some DVD's. When I went into her room, she was making a butterfly out of construction paper to decorate her door. Her creativity knows no limits. Her entire bed was covered with scraps of construction paper, and it reminded me of third grade. She kept her bed busy with stuff so that she wouldn't be sitting on it. She wants to move around as much as she can before the transplant on July 5th.

She looked strong and bright and indefeatable. Her brother Marc and her mom were there keeping her company. It was good seeing them too. Marc was very impressed with her I.V. pump. I think he said it was the xbox 360 of I.V. pumps, compared to the "Pong" I.V's he has to work with on the east coast. It was good to see that she was surrounded by the state of the art.

During the time chilling and goofing around, she had to rinse her mouth with some medicine. The rinse happens every 2 hours and after every meal to prevent mouth infections. She also has to eat her food within the hour otherwise she has to trash it.

We went walking around the floor for excercise, and I got to shake hands with Dr. Forman, the resident guru who is a god among cancer doctors. He'll be the one in charge of her transplant. I felt better knowing that she was going to be in the best hands in the field. After a few laps, I helped her make some flowers to keep her butterfly company. She got introspective and thought it was funny that we were making flowers out of construction paper, in the middle of a cancer ward. I think when she creates, it feeds her soul and is a medicine in itself. I like to
think that just being there and spending some time with her was strong medicine. It gives reason to think of the present and live in the moment. I practiced my popping and locking moves for her. Something about wearing gloves makes me want to do the robot.

There is a dry erase board in the front of her room. On it was written "Day -7". Its a count down to Day 0, which is July 5th. After that, she'll be in her room for a 100 days. She won't be able to move around much and will be basically bedridden. She won't be able to have people in her room for a hundred days. At least, that is to my understanding. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in a room for a hundred days, let alone in bed for that amount of time. She'll need visitors to drop by and say hello throughout her treatment, but if you want to see her and spend time with her in the same space, it would be best to do so before July 7th. So go see her now! And bring something to cheer up her room. Something that will make her think about you when she sees it. Wall decorations, posters, pics. Frankly, I think she needs
a lot of wall decorations.

Doug