Perspective

I've been sitting in front of this computer for a while trying to think what I want to put out there today.  What other crazy story should I tell today?  I can't think of any of the bad stuff today. And I don't feel like it.

Yesterday, my sister in law, N received a bone marrow transplant from her brother, R.  She has been in  and out of all the best hospitals in NY since last summer 2010, fighting a very aggressive form of leukemia.  She has 2 types actually, one that is normally pretty treatable, and the other has an extremely high mortality rate.  Forgive me for not remembering the letters that are associated with these specific diseases.. I've heard enough medical jargon in the past year to make my head spin.  It just all starts to sound cloudy after awhile and I just try to hear the words that mean she could get better.

Just before the holidays this winter, she was giving up hope.  She did NOT want any more chemotherapy.  She felt like it was poisoning her and killing her.. and she was not getting better.   The doctors told her that if she decides to stop chemo, that her life expectancy would drop from a few months, to just a few weeks.  She decided to change doctors.

At another hospital, almost right across the street from her original hospital, she found a doctor that was willing to perform bone marrow transplants even when the patient still has cancer-- this, apparently is not common.  But she had nothing to lose. 

N was able to be home for the holidays, which was nice--- despite what John has put me through, I'm glad I still get to be a part of their family's Christmas festivities.  They do it up right.  We do the yankee swap (some call it the white elephant, etc) My boys run around wildly for hours with their cousins eating as much junk as they can get their little hands on.  There's lots of food, and an insane amount of people.  It's a lot of fun, and I'm really glad N was able to be there for it.

About a week ago, R had to go to the hospital every day to prepare his body to donate bone marrow.  He received a series of shots and blood tests every day which were exhausting, I'm sure.  On Saint Valentine's day, he went in to finally donate his potentially life saving marrow.  This involved needles in his stomach among other painful procedures.  The very next day (yesterday), N received the marrow.. and now we all wait.

In the next 14 days or so, the doctors will begin to know if the procedure worked and if her body is accepting the marrow and doing it's magic.

In the horrible scenario that it doesn't, my ex, John is also a match and they will try to start the process all over again.. and pray that N's sick body can hold up enough strength to do another round of chemo followed by another round of the experimental drug they've been giving her to help her body accept foreign marrow.

With all this going on around me, it's kind of ridiculous to put on a pity party for myself today. 

N is a wonderful person.  She is a mother of 5 kids- 4 of whom are grown, one is only 16.  She is extremely involved with her church, and she eats all organic and natural foods. She does everything right.  She is nice to everyone, and forgiving too.  She is the one that John moved in with when he had no place to go.  She knows all that he has done (or a lot of it, anyway) and she forgives him and tries to help him and prays for him.  She doesn't deserve any of this.

So, with all that said, I will keep my snarky old ex husband stories to myself today and try to just send out some good positive thoughts into the universe and pray that everyone gets better.