Blood transfused

We did it! And I already am feeling the goodness! I walked from Mom's car in front of the house, up the driveway and into the house and to the kitchen without shortness of breath at all!!! Seriously!!!!! Haven't been able to get barely to the front door and then had to sit on the bench and rest before unlocking the door! No joke!

Here's the first bag of blood, rolling down the line and into my port!  Can I tell you how thrilled I was that they were able to use my port rather than fighting to find an IV?!?!  Pretty thrilled, indeed!  When my blood arrived I clapped and cheered, "Hooray!"  When I asked the nurse if everyone cheers about their blood she looked at me like a was a little crazy and said, "Nope."  Oh.  Well, I thought it was pretty awesome! 

The second pint of blood came with a love note from my friend Ingrid!  I love knowing that she bagged and prayed over my incoming blood!!  Thanks Ingrid!

This is the "cleaning out the line" after a pint of blood goes in.  Because each pint has to be called for and then sent up to General Day Care, a little bag of saline (or two in my case) were run to get every last drop of blood into me and to keep the lining running til the next blood arrived.  It was quite fascinating to watch!

And here's the home stretch.  The last bag of saline running, that's why the blood is watery looking in this photo... it's the last dregs diluted.  A fairly long day, we arrived at 10am and were outta there at 5:25.  Over the next six hours I am to watch for fever, chills, rash, hives... please pray we have no side effects!   The nurse also advised that I will be very tired tonight and tomorrow and that it takes about three days for the blood to get all the way through all my organs and get everything good and oxygenated again.  So... dancing on Friday!   Mom is hoping that because the weekends post-chemo are usually super tired, but because the new blood will kick in about then, that maybe this weekend will be smoother sailing!  Her lips to God's ears, right?!?!  Right!!!

Feeling pretty good.  Shawn and I just went for a walk and made it right out of the cul de sac and halfway to the end of the subdivision!  That's huge!  I don't want to push it too much, but I also feel like someone who has been sitting / laying for two days and my legs and shoulders are exhausted.  I needed to move a little!  [smile]   And now... to move to the couch cuz this Momma is feeling sleepy.  Come on, bedtime!!

Public Service Announcement:  Did you know that British Columbia doesn't donate enough blood for our own needs?  In fact, the blood for the guy a few chairs over was probably brought in from out of province because his particular blood type is one of the harder-to-match ones and less-people-donate-it ones!!!   So... if you have blood, and I know that you do, please consider donating a few times a year to the Red Cross Blood Donor Clinics!  Blood, it's in you to give!   And, as a twice recipient now, I thank you for the gift of health!!!

Thank you to all who have been praying me through this day!  We appreciate that a lot!!!!
Kristin