Stem Cell Transplant -- A Photo Diary

While preparing for my stem cell transplant, I asked my oncologist/hematologist what the typical routine might be during the proposed 17-day hospitalization. He had no real answer (unlike the same medical center's solid organ transplant unit, which distributes binders with color photos describing the process). My doc and I had bonded because of our mutual background and love of photography -- especially photojournalism. In fact he confided that during med school, he contemplated leaving medicine for photography ... until his father pulled him back from the "road to ruin." Partly to keep me occupied and engaged in my recuperation, I'm sure, and primarily because of a need for future-patient information, I was permitted to document my experience. A caveat: No other patients could be recognizable in photos; staff were all OK, in fact some images of them have had more hits on Picasa and Flickr than more serious images of the procedure. I'm sure in the four years since the SCT there have been advances in treatment and some commenters have told they experienced slight differences in the process at different hospitals. Stem Cell Transplant: A Procedural Photo Journey