A Day That Will Live in Infamy 12/7/05

In case you are wondering what day that might be, it is Pearl Harbor day. A generation ago, it had as bad an affect on them as 9/11 has on us today. The thought of it made Americans (that's North Americans but not too far North) fighting mad. My wife and I visited Okinawa, Japan not too long ago and took a tour of battle sites lead by a walking talking WW2 encyclopedia which was very educational and moving. My uncle survived the death march of Batan and my dad was five miles off the coast of Pearl Harbor on the USS Enterprise at the time of the bombing. And since I served six years in the U.S. Navy, I guess you could say I sort of have a vested interest in remembering the day.

As I mentioned earlier, they gave me the day off from stem cell harvesting today. I needed that! We went to WalMart (where else). The sky was clear and bright again today. The outside air temperature gauge inside my car read 4 degrees. My vehicle has been telling me it has low tire pressure ever since we got here. I have been putting off adding air until today. I stopped at a filling station on the way to check the pressure. I got out my tire pressure gauge and proceeded to air up the tires. The front one checked at about 22 pounds which is not so bad for those jumbo seventeen inch tires especially in the cold Minnesota weather. I pumped them up to the factory recommended 32 pounds. Then I proceeded to the rear tire, removed the cap, applied the pressure gauge the head of which immediately broke off and fell on the ground. I must have got a lucky green light on the way or some other good fortune for which this was a counterbalbancing event. As they say in Minnesota (and in Mississippi too as a matter of fact -- at least I do) oh well, it could be worse. I then proceeded to inflate the tires by sight. I made sure I added too much air so I could let some out after I purchased a new tire gauge at WalMart later. As it turned out, I got about 50 pounds in the right front. I deflated the remaining three ungauged tires to the recommended 32 pounds (or thereabouts). Now I should be square with the overall scheme of things, probably, but you never know.

Bob, one of the nurse coordinators, called a while ago and told me my CD34 protein level from the blood draw this morning was 9.4. It isn't a 10 like they like to see but its good enough for them to want to see me back in the harvest bay tomorrow morning at seven. But that doesn't get me off the hook for my nightly growth factor injection at 8 PM tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I am hoping they will collect over a million stem cells tomorrow and I can be finished with the collection process by Friday.

Stay tuned for further developments.