Here on the transplant floor, they put up a small poster on your door when you receive your stem-cells that's titled, "Happy New Birthday."
For me, that means I've experienced 3 birthdays - my newborn birth, my spritual birth in Jesus, and now my transplant birth. I am getting an "O" negative donor transplant, so my new marrow will ultimately produce O+ blood and I'll be "reborn" from A+ blood.
In similar fashion, God "transplanted" a spiritual heart of flesh in me on my spiritual rebirth, replacing my spiritual heart of stone. “I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 11:19. No spiritual patch, but a full transplant.
Do I have moments of doubt & despair? Yes, but ultimately, I know and have faith He is ever with me and has sealed me with His Holy Spirit for the day of redemption.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
So now, I guess I have 3 birthdays!
My nurse this morning drew out this graph to show me the white blood cell count curve/recovery. Zero is today. +3, +5, 15-21 are the post-transplant days. Things will get rough around +5 until the curve starts to trend upward. Without white blood cells, things don't get repaired as well, thus the GI tract sores, etc.
I will also most likely get RBCs and platelets a time or 2 during the "valley" of that curve, as those cells also have to be replaced by my new marrow. WBCs need to be produced by my new marrow, though.
May your Friday be a blessed day! May you be blessed with the eternal
PS, the staff just gave me this gift for my "birthday."
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