Before, During and Still During

This is about the time of year when all those "Best of 2007" shows start. Best shows, best movies, best reality TV smackdowns, etc. So a little Worst of/Best of retrospective, if I can make yet another post all about me... (I'll stop soon, I swear).


This is me this time last year in the hospital--of course--for another prodigious bleeding out the mouth/nose/eyes episode. Or was this the time I spiked that hellish fever and thought I was going tits up? Who knows. All I know is, you're in bad shape when you've been hospitalized so often in such a short period of time that you can't remember which time was which. Seeing this photo just reminded me (how quickly we forget) that I used to start each and every day checking my mouth and body for signs of overnight internal bleeding. Top o' the f&^king mornin', huh?


For those of you who've asked, this is what stem cells look like. I'd show you the whole set-up, but my name is all over the bag and I'm not outing myself just yet. These are the actual stem cells from my lovely donor who is directly responsible for today's photo's existence (the bad hair and Michael Jackson mask-and-gloves chic are fully my own responsibility):


Can't wait to post my After for you next summer when an N-95 mask is not consuming my face and I've had my first haircut (not including a pair of scissors kindly wielded by the nurse on the transplant floor) in about 18 months.

Incidentally, I'm not posting this because I'm completely self-involved (although I am); I'm posting because I want to show you what one person can do, that person being my stem cell donor. Bambina has a mother because of my donor. You get to read my blog, you lucky dawgs, because of my donor. I get to see 2008 because of my donor. If you haven't already done so, please think about signing up to become a donor too. You may never be called. But if you are, you'll get to join the small ranks of people who can say honestly, "I saved another human being's life." And as the old rabbinic saying goes, "He who saves one life it is as if he has saved an entire universe." So please seriously think about registering. It's a nice Christmas gesture for your Jewish friend. ;) It's only a cheek swab in the mail to get typed for preliminary matching. It's only a few minutes of paperwork...And, most importantly, it's not often that mere mortals get the chance to save a universe.

http://www.marrow.org--JointheDonorRegistry