The Harvest of Champions

Yesterday, doctors and nurses across the floor of the Kraft Blood Center scavenged for every last drop of Alpen's blood. His crimson tide was rumored to be teeming with fenugreek, sudharshan churna, as well as gold dust from the Esperanza mountains of Honduras and cafe con leche from West Havana (aka West Kendall) in Miami. The goal was to collect over 2 million of Alpen's white blood cells per kg of his weight over the course of the week.

For weeks we have been preparing Alpen with wholesome food, regular accupunture and cranial sacral treatments, deep massage, pep talks/nagging, and oodles & oodles of love.

Alpen has been preparing by leaving Miami, hanging out with old college friends now attending Harvard and MIT, attending lectures on the presidential race and the financial crisis, hour long drumsets .. on his tabla, and almost daily visits to Wagamamas (if you do not already know Wagamama -- you will).

So when Rahul woke him at 5am Monday morning with his daily injection of Nuepagen, he was not only awake, but ready to get these bad boys out of him. Nuepegan is one of the drugs Alpen has been taking to keep his white blood cell count high and his immune system strong so as to avoid infection or getting sick.

At the hospital, they performed a series of blood tests to count his cell. They wined and dined us with OJ and bagels. Nurses and doctors look for particular protein that helps measure how many white blood cells you have. We needed 4 to 5 for them to proceed with the harvest. When the blood test result arrived, his count was 86.

Late last night, we received a call from the transplant nurse. The lab results were in. We had a week to collect the 2 million stem cells needed to be frozen and returned to him as part of the transplant.

Alpen produced 10 million white blood cells (per kg) in just one day.

Needless to say -- It seemed as though Alpen is brewing white blood cells and his bone marrow was working overtime. Also, Alpen has been well cared for and prepared for the adventure ahead -- so I want to give a shout out to everyone that has been taking care of him here in Boston: Palak, Rahul, Vivek, Rohitbhai, Rohini Aunty and Ravi Uncle .. and, of course, Bone Marrow Bhai!

For those of you who want to Wagamama with Alpen, come by and join us in Boston, or find the nearest location here.