Saturday, October 04, 2008

Admission Day: ROOM #1166

Well, I have been officially welcomed into my new home, room #1166.

Earlier today, I stopped by the Olive Garden to get some carryout for dinner. I told them this would be my last REAL meal for awhile, so they hooked me up with some special soup and a bag packed with fresh breadsticks. The Tour of Italy never tasted so good.

Then around 7p tonight, I got the call that my room was ready. I packed clothes, books (mostly inspirational/positive thinking kind of books), and all my gadgets. Then, I told my temporary apartment goodbye and went on my way.

The shuttle bus has it's last run at 730p and I was able to make it in time. It's a large bus, the size of a Greyhound, but nice. Over the past few weeks, I'd made friends with Lisa, the morning driver. Lisa loves to talk and it isn't her job to just drive the bus. She has to know how you are doing, what's going on with you. She doesn't work for the hospital--just a charter bus company, but makes things better for the patients. (The passengers are usually a mix of patients and medical students). Lisa also told me she knew of another guy from Atlanta that had been at Emory and was now being treated at MD Anderson and regularly rides the shuttle.

I didn't know the evening bus driver that well. We'd never talked. As I went to board, he saw all my bags and I told him I would be in for probably 2-3 weeks, maybe a month. "You having a transplant?" he asked. He knew all about it. The bus drivers see transplant patients all the time, so it's no big deal to them.

I was the only passenger on the bus and sat in the front seat (just imagine being the only passenger in a Greyhound)! But we chatted the entire ride to the hospital. And once I made it to MD Anderson, I had kind of forgot that I was on my way to be admitted for the most major medical treatment I will ever receive.

The driver talked about how he sees so many patients that do so well and that MD Anderson is the place! Turns out he also used to live in Atlanta. He told me the story of a 21 year old guy that recently had a transplant, and afterwards, you would have never known anything had happened to him. I told him, yeah, it's gonna be tough, but that's gonna be me the next time you see me!

As I left the bus and checked into admissions, I had no fear. I thought to myself: "the ride here was so pleasant... and so peaceful". What a good experience this is gonna be...

I then found out I would be in room 1166, so got in the elevator. I pressed the "11" key. Some other people walked in and pressed the "7" key. 7-11

Over the past few years, 7-11 has always been a kind of "lucky" number for me. No joke.

Tomorrow they change out my chest line and we get the party started with the first high dose chemo drug.