Getting Turned Inside Out

I've now completed three days of apheresis, having collected 4.4 million stem cells on my way to six. (Although the transplant will use only three million, my doctor wants double that amount in hand in case a second transplant is indicated.) While I'm getting tired of being a pin cushion (think lots of IV sticks and belly pokes) the end is in sight. With luck, I'll inch across the finish line tomorrow.

I awoke today to scary news. My brother-in-law Norm suffered a stroke yesterday, and his wife (my sister Tracey) went to bed last night with Norm in the hospital, not being able to talk. We got a brief note from her first thing in the morning apprising us of the situation. Fortunately, Norm recovered his speech later today. While they're still testing, it appears he'll have a full or nearly full recovery. Whew. It's sobering to be reminded that serious health challenges can strike any of us at any time.

On a positive note, there is a riot of flowers in bloom in downtown Rochester (after all, it's mid-July) and it's a multicolored joy to walk the pathways that Susan and I traverse between Mayo Clinic and Transplant House each day. Further, Rochester is an exceptionally clean and friendly town, and from the eighth floor of the Eisenberg Building (where apheresis is conducted) we have a nice panoramic view of the north side of the city in full green raiment. Today we got a bonus as storm clouds rolled through all morning. Though it didn't rain, the view was spectacular.

Looking back over my first 10 days in town, it's been wonderful having so much time with Susan (who is taking time off from her regular duties at St Paul's Episcopal Church to be my primary support person). Starting next Monday Susan gets relief as Alison, Ceilee, and Annie takes turns covering the next fortnight. While I'm anticipating good connections with those loved ones as well, it's been precious sharing with Susan all of my fears and joys as I surrender to the fast water of the transplant process, trusting the sturdiness of our intimate canoe to see us safely through. It is, after all, a big deal. Our future is at stake, and I hold dearly the hope of being able to enjoy substantial time together in good health.

• • •

Mayo Clinic thoughtfully offers apheresis patients access to movies while they go through the five-hour collection sessions. Monday we watched The Intern (a lovely comedy with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway). Being an older guy myself it was touching watching how De Niro portrayed a 70-year-old widower who was not yet done with making a contribution in the world. I admired his patience working in a company run by people who were a generation younger than himself—available to give advice if asked, but never pushing it. Without rancor or ego, he gracefully accepted the role of office intern after retiring from a successful career as a business vice president. He simply wanted to be back in the action and knew how to be a team player.

The action hinges off a personal crisis for the company founder and CEO, Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). She loves her company (an online fashion start-up) but the long hours take her away from her daughter and stay-at-home husband. The neglected husband has an affair, Jules finds out, and feels she has to choose between a job she loves and the family she loves. In the end, hubby repents and Jules gets to keep both, but left unexplored is how that adds up. Where are the extra hours needed to do both well going to come from? The movie got right up to the crucial question and then ducked.

Tuesday we saw Spectre (the latest James Bond thriller), and today we caught Star Wars: The Force Awakens (episode VII). Sandwiched between these two escapist thrillers (where once again, wouldn't you know it, good triumphed over you know what at the last possible moment), we enjoyed Inside Out, a delightful Pixar's release from last year. (Does Pixar ever produce a bad movie?) While I'm not sure that catching up on movies you missed first run is an even trade for having cancer, it's at least a sliver of a silver lining.

The best of the bunch was the animated film, Inside Out, which I had never heard of but Susan knew to be a winner. The concept is what's happening in the consciousness of an 11-year-old named Riley as she tries to integrate her five primal feelings: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust (think of a team of five trying to cooperatively resolve how Riley should respond in any given moment, with Joy as the team leader, but not necessarily always in control—it was hilariously insightful). 

The film's dramatic crisis occurs when Riley (an only child) and parents leave their happy home in Minnesota to explore a new life together in San Francisco. Riley stumbles out of the blocks in her first day at her new school, and this movie brought me to tears as Joy learns to make friends with Sadness, helping Riley reunite with her parents—rather than trying to keep Sadness confined to a small circle where she doesn't touch much.

What a delightful way to introduce the concept of emotional health—something we all struggle with, not just 11-year-olds. While Riley's brain worked overtime to make sense of her conflicted feelings toward her parents (why did they take her away from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where everything was going so well?), it triggered sympathetic tears in me about my complicated relationship with my father, where I struggled mightily to understand my emotional responses (and his).

Anyway, that's what I noticed during cancer treatment today. What's it going to be like when the hard part comes?