Tag Archives: harrowing-work

Tales From City of Hope #6: What Does Kevin Smell Like?

by ELTKassandra Posted on April 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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As you recall from yesterday, the DMSO preservative used to keep my stem cells fresh was alleged to cause a distinct body odor. So today, after the transfusion, I asked everyone who came into my room what I smelled like. The results are displayed on the right in chart form because Science™.

The results were disappointing. My sample size was dismally small, and 100 percent female. No single result rose to the level of significance at the 95 percent level. There wasn’t even a modal response. In fact, it was worse than that. One respondent said garlic, but all four of the others said definitely not garlic. One said sweet and another said not sweet. And one person said there was no odor at all.

The best I can conclude is that there is an odor of some kind, but everyone smells something different. I should add, however, that the test conditions were suboptimal. I’m such a good stem cell producer that I only needed two bags of cells. Some people need as many as ten. This means less DMSO for me and therefore less odoriferousness. Beyond that, given the poor state of the data, your guess is as good as mine.

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Tales From City of Hope #6: What Does Kevin Smell Like?

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Tales From City of Hope #5: My Stem Cells Have Come Home to Papa

by BrianneJessep Posted on April 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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It is 9:49 am PDT on April 23, and my stem cell transfusion is complete. It took less than 20 minutes. Now the stem cells just have to graft and start multiplying, each of them eventually maturing into some kind of blood product (red blood cell, white blood cell, platelet, etc.). This will take about a month, but I’m not home free even then. It turns out that these will initially be “baby” cells, and it takes them about a year to fully learn how to do their jobs. Who knew that itty bitty cells had to attend cell training school?

The entire remainder of my visit at City of Hope is just waiting for my immune system to recover and to keep an eye out for severe side effects in case they happen. In a few days I’ll be losing my appetite, but apparently this is because I’ll be losing my sense of taste. In the past, I’ve lost my appetite due to IV painkillers in the hospital or extreme fatigue at home. In both cases food tasted normal, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of eating anything.

So will this be better or worse? Presumably, food will be tasteless but not repulsive. That strikes me as no fun, but actually more tolerable than being actively repulsed by food. We’ll see.

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Tales From City of Hope #5: My Stem Cells Have Come Home to Papa

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Tales From City of Hope #4: The Smell of Victory in the Morning

by Heriber8089 Posted on April 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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Chemotherapy is over and tomorrow is Tag Null: that is, Day Zero, when they pump my own frozen stem cells back into me. The entire process takes about 20 minutes, but I’ll be in the hospital practically the entire day getting liters and liters of IV fluids. This is partly to keep me hydrated and partly just because they want to keep me under observation for a while.

But here’s the interesting thing. The stem cells are kept in a preservative solution to keep them fresh, and apparently this will give me a strong body odor of some kind. But what? One nurse said I would smell like bad garlic for a day. That sounds bad. But a different nurse said I would smell like creamed corn. That seems more tolerable. Yet a third suggested it differed by nationality, and a white boy like me might small like iodine.

But which is it? To me, of course, I will smell fresh as a new-plucked daisy. It’s only other people who have to put up with my olfactory weirdness. In any case, I plan to ask everyone who comes into my room what I smell like. Spoiled tuna? A lovely cheese casserole? Bacon and eggs? Who knows?

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Tales From City of Hope #4: The Smell of Victory in the Morning

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By Immense Coincidence, GOP Benghazi Probe Scheduled to Finish Up During Height of 2016 Hillary Campaign

by LatiaChumleigh Posted on April 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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From Bloomberg News:

The findings of a Republican-led committee investigating Hillary Clinton’s response to the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, likely will not be released until next year, just months before the 2016 presidential election.

I am shocked, shocked to hear this news.

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By Immense Coincidence, GOP Benghazi Probe Scheduled to Finish Up During Height of 2016 Hillary Campaign

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Does Walmart Have Plumbing Problems?

by NapoleoGoold Posted on April 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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No, really. Did five Walmart stores have to shut down and abruptly lay off all their workers within hours because they suddenly discovered massive plumbing problems? Michael Hiltzik is skeptical.

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Does Walmart Have Plumbing Problems?

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Tales From City of Hope #3: The Stop Sign For Dwarves

by Garland36G Posted on April 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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This is the stop sign at the end of the road that runs outside my apartment in Parsons Village. It is about three feet high.

There are no other stop signs on the corner. As far as I can tell, there are (currently) no obstructions that prevent building a normal height sign. All the other traffic signs in the vicinity are normal height.

So what’s the deal? Did it replace a normal height sign that trams and maintenance carts that kept ignoring? Is it some kind of “fun” sign for the kiddies? Did someone write the specs in metric, and 3 meters became 3 feet somehow? Any other ideas?

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Tales From City of Hope #3: The Stop Sign For Dwarves

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It’s Time For Kansas to Rejoin the Real World

by CaryThielhhwjd Posted on September 22, 2014

Mother Jones

The Republican governor of Kansas has pauperized his state in order to fund tax cuts for the rich, while the Republican Secretary of State is busily trying to game the midterm ballot to ensure the reelection of the current Republican senior senator. I’d think this was a parody from the Onion if I didn’t know it was for real. I sure hope the good folks of Kansas finally manage to come to their senses this November.

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It’s Time For Kansas to Rejoin the Real World

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