Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 2:05 AM Subject: T+11, evening I have been in here 18 days and my health continues to be excellent, not perfect, but excellent. There have been problems, but these are all normal consequences of the treatment (mouth and throat sores), drug interactions (cramps) or blood transfusions (slight fever). They still basically have not seen anyone get to this point in as good condition as me. I am walking well over 1 mile today, beginning training for my next marathon. If my luck holds, I will possibly get out of here one week from thursday (Nov. 11). Keep your fingers crossed. I have been a little lax in putting out emails over the last few days. First, the return email drops to almost zero over the weekends. Second, the drugs they have been given me have wreaked havoc on my typing ability. I have been collecting short notes over the last few days, but will report only the highlights here. I had a visit today from the apheresis department, the people who collect platelets. They said that they likely have already enough platelet donations and donation appointments for me, and that additional donors need not call them for appointments. However, I had an experience tonight that, if you wish, will allow other platelet volunteer donors to continue with their donations. There is a 17 year old boy in the room just north of mine. He is to begin the bone marrow transplant process tomorrow, beginning with the radiation then with the chemo. I asked him and his mother if they had any volunteer platelet or blood donors, and they said no. I asked them what insurance they had, and they said Medicaid. I do not know if Medicaid covers 100% of the medical costs, but suspect that it is not as comprehensive as my Kaiser coverage. Directed blood product donations are charged out at lower costs than normal anonymous volunteer donors. Anyway, if any of the unfulfilled platelet donors volunteers for me are interested, you can contact me thru email, suppplying your phone numbers, and I will compile a list and get it to the apheresis department here and tell them that you want to donate platelets for Jesus Dario Martinez (Dario). You would be doing him a big favor both in showing support and possibly financially. It would be a good thing to do. He's a nice kid who has been given a real raw deal in life. He has a sister that is a perfect match, and I am mentoring him and his family on what to expect going through this. I am also working on getting his rented PC internet capable so he can join in some of the fun that I have been having. Your thoughts and prayers have certainly done me no harm, and you can probably direct some of this energy in his direction. He likely needs it more than I do. Last night I watched Conan the Barbarian on TV. At the beginning is the famous quote from Nietsche: What doesn't kill you makes your stronger. Certainly is appropriate for my situation. Possibly putting this in came from the writers, maybe from Arnold, but I am placing my bet on James Earl Jones, the head bad guy. This movie also produced the reasonably famous trivia quote in response to the question what is the best thing in life: Crush your enemies Drive them before you Hear the lamentations of their women --Conan the Barbarian Certainly not politically correct, but probably appropriate given the context. I found this interesting and inspiring. Check out: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/110199ukraine-journal.html If you have the time. If the RM News or the Post leave you wanting, or you are sick of all the furniture ads, you can go to: http://www.nytimes.com/ and read stuff from the New York times every day. It is completely free, except for some sections, like the crossword puzzle, which is something that I havd done for years. They take blood samples every day thru my chest tubes. This is not done simply to prevent me from getting a good nights sleep. The draws are timed so that the lab results are available for the staff meetings every AM. They use the results to plan the day's regimen of fluids and other drugs and minerals that I get. Some days, like this morning, they had a problem getting blood to flow out of the tubes and into the attached syringes. If at first it doesn't work, I do things like shake all over, cough, raise and lower my arms, and in extreme cases, do the funky chicken. This usually does the trick. Today, that didn't work, so the nurse flushed the line with heparin, an anti-coagulant, and came back in ten minutes of so. This usually does the trick. Eureka, it worked. People have suggested that I have been preparing for this transplant my whole life, the vegetarianism, running, giving blood, etc. Looks like even my weird dancing style honed over many minutes in various bars in places like Murphysboro, Illinois, in the late 60s and early 70s did the trick tonight. The particular move that worked tonight was the put both hands up over my head and shake, shake, shake. Isn't life strange. I took an IQ test on the internet last night while extremely drugged out. There were 10 questions, the usual stuff. What's the next number in the sequence, this word is to that word like this other word is to which of the following, etc. I was expecting it to be somewhat challenging, but got 10 out of 10 correct. They say my IQ is still over 130, and I am gifted. Apparently didn't spend enough time in front of that linear accelerator, and don't even get me started on the '60s and what that might have done to reducing my brain cells. I have had 3 blood product transfusions over the last two days. I had platelets yesterday morning. It may have been from one of you volunteers, but I do no know. They said it was a split donation, meaning the total quantity given was placed in two bags. The donor information was not on this bag, but on the one with the other half of that donation. I also had two direct whole blood transfusions today, both from NREL donors with good handwriting. Somebody take both Fannie Posy and Lynn Gedvilas out for a lunch or a drink of their choice. They deserve it. Not only did it taste good, but there were absolutely no negative effects on me. The Dyersville Bridge I may or may not be able to run a marathon when I get out from under all of this. However it is certainly a possibility, why not? I walked two continuous miles in the last two days. The first one, yesterday morning was after a long night of fever, sore throat and dry mouth that prevented me from getting hardly any sleep. I was weaker than on previous walks, but it really was not a big deal. After all, it was just a mile on flat ground at a slow pace. Walking, hiking and running have always been a therapy for me, and I need therapy now more than ever. In the last few laps, although I really didn't need it, I visualized the Dyersville bridge in Northern California. This bridge is the beginning and end for three of the Marathons that I have run. There is a point when you come out of the woods and you get your first look at the bridge, just before the finish line, maybe 1/4 mile out. You get an adrenaline rush that has always let me speed up and look good when I cross the line, and also knock a few inconsequential seconds off of my time. The main issue at the end of a marathon is looking good, but that's another story. I am living through this whole thing minute by minute. The doctor told me yesterday morning that I am in the usual low point of the whole process, in fact have been there since my white cells left town, and that was about 9 days ago. So far, two nights ago was the worst time, and I've felt worse from having the flu. I feel fine right now, but that is likely due to the pain killers they put into me every so often Eating is difficult because of the sore through, but, if need be, I just eat real, real slow and take tiny bites. I know it can get worse, but the docs say I have only 3 days or so when my white cells should start ramping up again. Then I will be over this mountain, and face the next ones, including the graft versus host issues. I will face that when it comes. In fact, there may be better news than that. This morning my white cell count was 0.3, maybe just some more noise above the 0.1 counts that are definitely statistically equivalent to zero. However, the doctors said that this may indeed be the start of the engraftment phase, where the donor stem cells have indeed engrafted, and should continue to grow up. I am eagerly looking forward to the results from tomorrow morning's 4am blood draw and subsequent tests. And to all a good night.