Gifts from afar!

Yesterday I was quite surprised to find a package on the front step addressed to me! Earlier that same morning I had been talking to Ayla and Britta on skype for the first time as a conference call and now a parcel from Ayla! I knew it was coming but had forgotten about it. She made me this little doll guy who's green using some socks of mine that I had left behind in Canada. I couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes straight. She must have known I would appreciate it. Amoung other things, was a card whose envelope was full of gold glitter waiting to stick to any / all available skin of the recipient. Fortunately a little of it had leaked out and I took it outside to open. Escape unscathed! I also got a notebook that I really wanted with 3 different sections for lists- home, work and play. I'm going to be so organised! 

Mum's had a rough week, the hospital collected stem cells on Monday and Tuesday which was interesting but also kind of off-putting as they hooked her up through a catheter in her jugular vein. This machine pumps blood out and uses gravity to separate the white blood cells from the plasma and the red blood cells to collect them. Their mass or density is in the middle range of those and they pump the remaining blood back into the body. They allow three collection days to get the amount they need for a transplant but mum did a very good harvest (7.5 million on the first day, enough for two transfers) that she only had to do two days of collection. She was pretty happy to get the catheter out mostly because of how uncomfortable it was but also because she got a major allergic reaction to the anti-bacterial paint they used on the whole area before the catheter insertion. Poor mummy. It's been really hard to see her like this and I know I'm not helping matters much. 


I'll leave you with this parting gift...