Medical: Blood Test Tuesday before Chemo Wednesday

It is 10 days since I promised to report the insights of the lady "just like me" (same MCL, found in her colon (like my second lump was), same doctor, same hospital)

- Her highs and lows
- Her strategy for second opinions
- The stuff they don't tell you before you start

HIGHS & LOWS

Highs
- Private room during Stem Cell Transplant
- She'd returned to work after only 2 months out (1 month in hospital, 1 month at home)

Lows
- During the 2nd rounds of chemo (Nov, Dec, Jan) the hospital room is semi-private, so you're at the mercy of the other patient's TV & visitor habits.
- The lengths one must go to during ASCT for cleanliness (laundering, bagging, storing clothes, sterilizing ones inside (antibiotics) and out(antiseptic washes))
- Upon return home, there's still several weeks of vulnerability where you can't leave the house and should not share a bathroom

SECOND OPINION

- She went outside the "Harvard Bubble" (where I'm being cared for) and she at least went across town to the Tufts New England Medical Center (where Daughter 1 & Daughter 2 were born, as it happens).
- I'm inclined to see if I can go all the way to Houston (also a great cancer center) to see what they think.  In the Audiobook of Emperor of All Maladies, it appears that Houston was a refuge for many early chemo pioneers who didn't fit the "DC-NY-Bos" models of care, but often turned out to be right.

STUFF THEY DON"T TELL YOU (About ATSC)
- All that stuff about sanitizing and isolation listed under "lows"
- That for months I wont be  permitted to garden or eat salads due to the soil-borne germs risk.
- That for a month, my food will be exclusively heavily cooked, but later I can add fruits with peels
- That for 100 days my immune system will be like that of a newborn, and will have "forgotten" all the germs I've ever been exposed to and all the vaccinations I've ever had (and then, at 100 days, they'd start reintroducing childhood vaccinations)