When Somethings Broke, I Wanna Put a Bit of Fixin On It

When somethings bored, I wanna put a little exciting on it

If somethings low, I wanna put a little high on it

When somethings lost, I wanna fight to get it back again

'The Fixer' - Pearl Jam

Better late than never, let's finish out with the remainder of the great Portland trip. It definitely ended up being an up and down three days. Tuesday I can cover pretty briefly. I stayed in the hotel room as the pain was...unpleasant. Wednesday however was markedly better. After my injection, I packed up my laptop, sketch book, and some reading material, and headed in search of somewhere nice to be. My first stop took me down to Waterfront Park, which on a day like this, was absolutely beautiful. I found a nice perch near a fountain and started drawing all types of random things I saw. All in all it was a nice way to release some creativity, and it might be fun actually trying to get decent at it. After a handful of pages were filled I decided to continue my travels deeper into the downtown area. However this part of the day was short-lived as after a bit more wandering and some lunch, I found my strength waning considerably, so I hopped a bus and went back to the hotel. Pretty much stayed in the rest of the night, as I knew that having to be at the hospital at 6:30am was gonna throw off my sleep schedule just a bit.

And about sleeping I couldn't have been more right. At about 3:30am I woke up and continued the extra-large dosing of pills that I'd started Wednesday evening. At that point I was at two pills every three hours. I was a little amused because this pain meant that the drugs were working WAY better than anticipated, which would be confirmed very shortly. After packing up, I headed to the hospital. The started me off with the final injection (as though I needed it at that point) and then left me in bed to await the staff that would be doing the procedure. We didn't get the show started until 9:00am, which made me figure that I wouldn't be out of there until late evening. Not long after starting is when I learned why I'd been taking calcium supplements for the last two weeks. The stuff they put in to keep your blood from clotting absolutely drains your body of calcium. It took about ten minutes before my face went tingly and they had to start feeding me Tums to offset the loss, and this was even with an IV drip of calcium running as well.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful, all four hours of it. They had told me to expect six to eight hours, and we were done in four. Yeah, I think the drugs did their job. With my contribution complete, I headed downtown to wait for my ride to Seattle, provided by the incomparable Kevin Price. Definitely an upgrade over riding the train back alone.

Now that I've had a little bit of distance from the process to think about it, there are a few things that stick out to me. The first off is that if by some crazy odds I ever had to do this again, I would find some way to take someone with me, because doing that alone honestly sucked. That's not to say I didn't have fun most of the week, but there were moments, particularly when the drugs wore off, when a companion would have been nice. The second thing is actually something that had very obviously been noticed every since this process started, and that is people's reactions. There have been some very flattering things said about me during this, but it bothers me that it was such a big deal. Now don't get me wrong, I get the ramifications of all this, it's why I did it. Assuming nothing goes wrong, this person lives because of my actions. However it's not like I really did anything of note. I got stabbed with some needles (enough to make me look like a heroin addict), took a week of paid time from work that I wouldn't have otherwise used (and sick time resets each year, which for me is in seven weeks), and I underwent some discomfort. I truly don't get how this is even a decision.

I was gonna split these up, but I think we'll go right into everything that has happened since my return. I was considering taking things easy for a day or two while the drugs worked their way out of my system. That plan lasted about four minutes. By 2:30pm on Friday I was with Katie getting ready to enjoy margaritas and sunshine on the waterfront. Yeah, this was gonna be a good day. From there it was Azteca for happy hour with Zach, and then beer pong at the old house where we were joined by Randy and Bennett. Gotta say that with how much I was missing everyone while I was gone, this day was the answer. And then it was followed up by an amazing Saturday with the family for Gayle's birthday and a Moon Temple adventure that night. Darts, Backstreet Boys covers, obligatory Bon Jovi, my new favorite drink from there because it doesn't taste like death...good times. And then the attempt to out-do it all on Monday. I know that I got into a debate on relationships with Kevin (which later led to me being berated for, well I honestly don't know what), we had a bunch of people show up that haven't come out in forever, and it was all absolutely amazing, even after I had the last of my painful side-effects from the aforementioned drugs, pain so intense that it outdid the knee injury. Even though it made the end of the night suck, damn it was a helluva time.

The last thing on my mind is this. It has been a very intense six or seven weeks. Good, bad, other, so much has gone on. Basically everything since I started writing again last month is almost overwhelming when I look at it all. Six weeks since I took the test for a new job (for which interviews still haven't occurred). Five weeks since I sat in my car trying to wrap my mind around three of the most unexpected questions that have been asked of me (all of which I answered wrong). Four weeks since the loss of a friend (RIP Alvino, I wish I had known you better). Three weeks since the cabin. Two weeks since the marrow donation process took me out of town. One week since my return and the madness that has ensued since. So multiple trips out of town, more nights of debauchery then I can remember, friendships that have became much different than I would have expected a year ago, lives lost, lives saved, and soon enough, lives started (a child that will be raised entirely in the 470 warehouse, god help him). I was told recently that I am dramatic. Well to that I say only this. Life is dramatic. If you don't realize this, you're not seeing everything.

Gonna call it quits for now, was gonna touch on some other interesting conversations that have gone on recently, but I have birthday festivities to attend to. Happy Birthday Steve, love ya!!!

Every Rose Has It's Thorn, Just Like Every Night Has It's Dawn

Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song.

Every rose has it's thorn.

'Every Rose Has It's Thorn' - Poison

That lyric really only works because Portland is the Rose City, but whatever works. So this week has been interesting. I arrived Saturday night, though all I did was quickly get to the hotel, set up shop, and go to bed. Figured some rest might do me good before the adventure ahead. Sunday started with my first Filgrastim injection. The purpose of this drug is to induce bone marrow to drastically increase production of white blood cells, and more importantly, stem cells. This is what makes possible these donations without the use of the giant needle into the hip, which as it turns out is barely used anymore. After about an hour for observation to make sure I wasn't going to have an allergic reaction, I was given some Vicodin, which I expected not to need, and was let loose upon the city. As I enjoyed the beautiful weather, I realized that I have an insufficient amount of summer clothing. Figuring there was no better time than the present, I hopped a bus for Clackamas Town Center. While there I bought a handful of new stuff, as well as a brief stop at Best Buy (of course, right?) to pick up some accessories for my new laptop. Upon returning to the hotel I decided to make use of the gym and swimming pool, and then retired for the night, mostly out of boredom (it had started raining, so more adventures on foot were out for now).

Monday was tremendously up and down. The trip for my injection was much shorter as they no longer needed to observe me for reactions. They asked me some questions regarding side-effects of which I'd had none, and sent me off. I decided that since the weather was going to be questionable, it was a good day to throw my nose into some books. Of course that means the next stop was Powell's. Oh what a beautiful place. I wandered aimlessly for a while before deciding on a rather unusual purchase (we'll come back to this), and left for a much more exciting pursuit. Turns out there was a Portland Beavers game going on just down the road at PGE Park, and the sun looked like it was going to come out. It is nice walking up to a stadium, asking for the best available seat, and getting in the front row for $15. Okay, I guess there were a couple rows in front of me, but those are season tickets only, so I considered it a win. The only downside was that on my way to the game, I found that apparently I was not going to be immune to the side-effects as I'd hoped. Well I worked my way through those with the help of the aforementioned prescription, which for sake of comparison, I only took 4 or 5 of them during the great knee injury last summer, starting 36 hours after it happened. It had only been 90 minutes since the injection. Probably not a great sign. To take my mind off the pain, and get through a particularly boring part of the game, I decided to make use of my purchase from Powell's. A few weeks ago I was asked if I have any artistic ability, in context I believe this meant mostly drawing and the like. Not exactly my specialty, but just as I answered, it may not be that I don't have the ability, simply that I haven't learned yet. So I took out my new sketchbook and pencils and starting drawing things I saw. My hope is to do a bit more of it around the city, but we'll see. Anyway, the game was fantastic, ending with a 4-3 Beavers win. There was also an interesting bit of drama toward the end. Some complete psycho went crazy on the security guards just about eight rows behind me. It took six of them to restrain the guy (of course the security guards weren't exactly the most imposing folk I've ever seen), but they managed to handcuff him to a seat until the police arrived. Nothing like some excitement in the stands to make the game that much better. So with the game over, I headed back to Powell's for a bit as I still wanted to look at the rare book room. After that I decided to get back to the hotel, because honestly things were starting to degrade quickly. Pretty much laid low and went back and forth between watching TV and going down to the hot tub for the rest of the night.

Which brings us to this morning. I'm about to go in for injection #3, which if the predictions are as accurate as they've been this far, is going to be very unpleasant. I can tell you that I'm already looking very forward to being back with my friends. Hope to see you back here in another couple days when I write about the last half of the trip. Miss you all, see you soon.