February 10, 2009 11:55 PM

That's it. My last day at home as me has been completed. When I return next Thursday, I will have the new bone marrow and the DNA of my blood and my blood type will become that of my donor. Kinda funky isn't it because the rest of me will still be me.

My daughter half kiddingly said that the 8 days that I will now spend in the hospital can be likened to the 8 days of Hanukkah. However, when you think about it, there really is a connection here. I am not Jewish, but I know that Hanukkah is the festival of lights commemorating a situation whereby there was only enough oil to light a lamp for one day and yet, amazingly, it stayed lit for 8 days. In my case, one small IV bag that only contains enough bone marrow to replace my marrow once will then give me a lifetime of days thereafter - hopefully many more than 8!

So tomorrow, I'll go out for breakfast(my last restaurant visit for a year), call the hospital at noon to determine when I need to be there, and then go to be admitted. Thursday the process starts and there will be much more news to report as the action picks up.

Stay tuned....

Bob