August 3rd – Many Apologies for not keeping up with my blog!

Since I experienced severe fatigue after isolation, I’ve only blogged once.  I’ve been home now for two weeks, but am going back in time to when I was still in Moscow.  I’ll be updating more regularly now that I’m feeling so much better.

One of the most important days at the hospital was the day I received my stem cells back, July 3, 2014. This is a photo of me receiving my stem cells.

This is the monitor that was in the room.  I felt fine, although I was seeing black spots.  I did not know my blood pressure was all over the place during the transplantation.  Dr. Fedorenko ordered an ECG the next day and everything was fine.

This is the video that Matt, Andrea’s husband took of my stem cell transplantation. Dr. Fedorenko held my hand during the procedure.  I asked about the Russian words for breathe in, and breathe out – Dookh – Venab.  My heart was fine, my stomach was a little upset. It was easy.

These are the photos of the celebration a few hours after Sheila and I received our stem cells back.  It was so much fun! Throwing the liquid nitrogen from the bucket that the stem cells were stored in are a major part of the stem cell celebration. It really was a joyous occasion.  Sheila was just as excited as I was!

                                                          This was just a little bit of it of the liquid nitrogen.

This one is fuzzy, but I love it anyway.

I scared Sheila a little bit with this one.  Dr. Fedorenko enjoys every minute of it too!

  I tried to get every bit of the liquid nitrogen out of the bucket!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!  It was a festive celebration.  I had a bar of chocolate for everyone to share.  I missed the next two birthday celebrations because I was in isolation.  I could not even hear anything!  The next two I got to experience were after I got out of isolation and the celebration food spread was over the top!

This was Gro Larsen’s New Life Birthday celebration! Look at that throw!!!