The big day!

Yes, today is the day I got my cells so it is known here as Day 0, or my Rebirthday according to Michelle.  They consisted of one bag of something one of the nurses described as Slush Puppy.  I looks like pink blood really.  It was given to me over 45 minutes and, apart form a brief mild reaction which was sorted immediately, was remarkably uneventful.  Something of a spectator sport though with The transplant consultant Heidi, staff nurse Darren, shadowing nurse Tania and Sister Kath all in the room with me and Dave who came to witness the great event too.

I have to say a HUGE thank you to my anonymous donor who supplied these cells, and to everyone who is on the bone marrow register and may give someone the chance of life in this way.  My donation was from a Matched Unrelated Donor so I really am now a Mudblood!

Now it is down to my body, the donor cells and the skills of the staff here working together to help me through the next couple of weeks as we wait for the stem cells to engraft and start producing their own white blood cells.  I still find it amazing that at the end of this I will have changed blood group from O Positive to A Negative!

I have been warned about one other really strange thing - apparently I will smell of sweetcorn for the next few days!  Bad news for Corina who doesn't like sweetcorn.

It's been quite an emotional high today, knowing this is really the start of my cure, so I think I'll be retiring to bed early tonight.

My sister Rosie has given some instructions on how to post comments (under Anonymous) after yesterday's posting, which may help those who want to give it a try.

Thanks for reading and good night to you all. x