Last monday I had another round of photopheresis at the Saint Antoine hospital. This time, Nathalie was the nurse in charge of me.
This time, no blood sampling to make analysis, as I had a full analysis a week ago (remember the fainting guy? ;-)!). On the other hand, I was “the center” of attention, as we had the visit of a technicien from the company which is making the machine: she trained two nurses to use the new software of the machine.
Nathalie put me under the heating blanket, so I would have soft veins, and thus the pressure will be more regular…
To insert the needles in the veins, the nurse put a tourniquet on the arm and gave me a soft “ball” in my hand to squeeze . Last time, I “complained” about not having my usual heart-shaped ball. This time, Nathalie, remembering my comments, gave me a pink heart-shaped ball (see the photo at the top of the article): thank you so much Nathalie! All the nurses are so fantatic :-)!After a speedy process, less than two hours, I was able to leave the hospital, and I took a bus to go to work…
This morning, I did not come empty-handed: the day before, I prepared a carrot cake for my “good friends the nurses from the photopheresis”! If, one day, I don’t need anymore to have photopheresis, I will miss them a lot.
Speaking of this, I have to say that, if the physical part of the recovery is going well, since a few weeks, I started to worry for the future. In fact, I am afraid of being left “almost alone”, when the apointments with my graft doctor, the photopheresis nurses, etc, will be less and less frequent. After having discussed the point with my family and friends, I decided to look for some help, and had an apointment last week with the psychologist of the department of hematology. After this first discussion, I left her convinced that she will be able to help me. I will meet her again in two weeks. After all, I am not Superman;-)!
The second anniversary of the graft is pretty close, June 24th, and if I am living an almost “as before” life, it is because of the people who took care of me at the Saint Antoine hospital and in particular my fantastic graft doctor, of course my beautiful stem cells donor (I will never meet her…), not forgetting my family and my friends who made me laugh even in the most difficult times (remember belly dancing?). I love you all!
ppmhk 
Nice heart shape ball!
I’d suggest you ask the 2 belly dancers to do a new performance to celebrate the 2 year anniversary? This time you can join them and post the video…. 🙂
The future is worrying I’ll give you this one but you will never be left alone or almost alone as we are all here for you, from all over the world, ready for a chat, a kiss, a big hug, sharing a piece of delicious carrot cake, organizing the next vacations, etc!
As you always write at the bottom of your articles: Enjoy life!
Bisous
Marie
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Hello ma poulette! Tu as raison: je ne serai jamais seul! Vous êtes toutes et tous là ! C’est juste un eptit moment de moral en baisse! J’ai utilisé beaucoup d’énergie pour revenir au “top” physqiuement. Maintenant je manque un peu d’énergie et c’est aussi à cause d’un mauvais sommeil! Et il faut bien que j’avoue enfin que je ne suis pas Superman :-)! J’avais fini par y croire! dur de redevenir un ppmhk ordianire ah ah! Une semaine de vacances et une sortie en barque (:-)!) vont faire du bien! Bonne journée! Take care and enjoy life! I love you! ppmhk
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