The Mambas

"Better bring some Mambas." He said it almost matter of factly as he hung up, after telling me that Dr Rich wanted to meet with him and go over his "salvage treatment" plan. That first day, back in June, when they said "stage three testicular cancer" we had mambas, then on the day of his first surgery we had mambas, and the first time they hung that iv bag full of the venomous bliomyocin, we ate mambas. So I grabbed some on the way to the meeting and we ate em up, as Dr. Rich talked about bone marrow transplants and more rounds of chemo.
Today we met with the organ transplant people up at LDS hospital, Celeste, the receptionist greeted us with an almost overly kind, "Brett, we are so glad you could make it" followed by offers of soda, water, cookies, a mask, an isolated room, whatever he wanted, and we knew that we had crossed into something that was bigger then mambas. Brett filled out paperwork, I spoke with a guy battling Leukemia, and then we went to see the doctor. He talked about the procedure, about the weeks leading up to the big event, when he would be poked and prodded, when he would do a bone marrow biopsy, and when he would take shots to build up his marrow, and how they would hook him up to a machine and hit a button and his stem cells would be harvested. He talked about the three weeks in the hospital immediately following, and how he would have two weeks to recover, only to start the process over again. Brett said he needed a day, just a day to take it all in, and then he would feel ok about it. I believe him. I think maybe I will bring him some mambas tomorrow though just to get him through.
I have to be honest, you four blog readers, this feels pretty serious now. We like to joke, talked about getting him an engraved Brass Ball ("RIP old boy" is what it would read) but there isn't a lot of joking on the organ transplant floor. So I am asking, please dear readers, if you pray, please pray for Brett. I think his salvage chemo starts on Tuesday and the rest begins right after Thanksgiving.