How to save a life (hopefully)

Hey, hello there, your favourite soon-to-be-doctor is back in town, even though typing is still a little bit inconvient.

On Sunday evening I left my hometown to go to Cologne.

 All pics taken by Tiny (2010)

There is a special clinic for stem-cell donation and the DKMS chose me to donate stem cells for a patient suffering from leukemia. So after stimulating my body to produce stem cells with subcutaneous injections (I've done it myself, super easy, no pain, not even a little hematoma) I was all set and ready to do it on Monday.

In the crook of my left arm was a pretty thick needle which took all my blood and led it into the centrifuge.
I had to squeeze a little red heart made of foam the whole time because when I stopped squeezing it, my venous valves closed and the centrifuge gave the alarm (It felt like a mobile phone vibrating in my arm, I'm not kidding!)

In the crook of my right arm was an intravenous catheter with a three-way-valve (they infused me some calcium since the citrate that keeps your blood running in the centrifuge steals some of your calcium (At first your finger tips start to prickle, then your lips, then your nose, I can say for myself that I found it a little difficult to breathe too but nothing too serious. After they infused some calcium the symptoms vanished pretty quickly)) where I received my blood back again. 

A very cute Russian Doctor wanted to put the intravenous catheter into a vein on my wrist but it didn't work out. A single tear was running down my face because she infused some NACL into my tissue but hey, shit happens. 

When she put the catheter into the crook of my arm she said: "You are a very brave girl, don't look at me, look out of the window into the Wallachia!"


They started the whole process at 8:00 am and it was finished at 1:30pm I think.
After the donation I felt pretty battered. I walked like the little elephant from "The jungle book"
I slept the whole afternoon but in the evening everything was fine.
The whole team was very nice and caring and they tried to keep everything as comfortable as possible.


You can see me here posing for the camera after the donation still with my compression-bandage on.

So yeah, that was it in the end. I think I would do it again. I hope the patient will get well soon. 
I wish him or her all the best.


Love, Tiny

Soundtrack of the day

But this rocks also (at least for me!)



Makes me wanna dance around. Like.. I don't know... Maybe a fawn in lingerie :D

No rain, no rainbows

All pics taken by Tiny (2010)

Link love, your weekly prescription

An under the sea- aquarium wedding  
Love the pics with the jellyfishes!

See also: Jellyfish tattoo

Octopusme is an Etsy onlineshop with lots of jewelry.
Very cool, I think I linked to a pair of earrings from them once.

Inside a wave - epic photography - Watch it, trust me, it's amazing!

I really love all white apartments (though my own apartment is far away from that..Damn! ;) )
See also: Minimalist white apartment

 Tim Ferris (who is pretty smart) wrote about dealing with haters

Sarah Wilson wrote: Are you authentic? True, true, true.. We should all think about that.

I had this picture from Fuck yeah - Tattoos! open as a tab on my laptop. My mum saw it and said:
"Oh, is that you?" I almost fell off the sofa.
"Nooo mum, this is not me, I swear."

Abandoned Russian building

Underwater ballett by Nadia Moro

 

This suits my summerfeeling pretty nice:



"Me gusta la mar, me gustas tú"

I can make no apologies for following my heart.
-Gavin Rossdale

Just do it.

On Friday evening (it was the 9th. I think)  I had a girls night with F. and K., we made Pasta, ate fruit salad, watched "Death at a funeral" (so funny!) and talked a lot.

F.'s vitality and her cute, hyper character are always inspiring me. She said: "Well.. Why should we wait for anything? Let's just do it!"
So we were leaving for a short trip to the beach on Saturday morning.
Here are some impressions:

All pics are taken by Tiny (2010)

I love this special moment when you see the ocean for the first time after a quite long time.

The water was really freaking cold but pretty refreshing.

So I guess on Friday F. will give me some of the pics we made together (will be posted later :))

Pics taken by me, F. and her little sis G.

Instead of watching soccer you could spend some time on your own

Which is exactly what I did and it was soo good.

Soccer is probably the least interesting thing for me this summer.
I know that only very few people share this opinion (The last soccer game shown on TV had a market share of 89%.. WHAT?) but why would I watch 22 people running after one ball for 90 minutes.

One evening when I had night shift Germany was playing and I looked into the room of two old male patients to see if they are alright when Germany scored. They shouted "YAAAAAAAY!" and hopped up and down on their beds as if they've totally forgot that they had a big knee surgery a few days before.

So yesterday evening I decided  to grab my camera and go for a little walk. Here are the pictures:

Odessa- Caribou

At first I thought I don't like the song. Not even a little bit.
But after listening to it a couple of times I'm not sure anymore.
Maybe it's not so bad after all.
Maybe I even like it.

I am Kele

Kele Okereke (the singer of BlocParty) runs an own blog!

Check his blog out: I am Kele

Abandoned place in my hometown

All pics taken by Tiny (2010)

A very very belated Link love!

Over 40 mosquito-bite-itch-relief-tips. Nail polish?? I'm not sure if I want to try every single one of these tips.

The inspirational photos for pinups pics!  So awesome!

Mushroom lamps I would totally want one if I could understand japanese :)

I love her tattoo: Ribcage


X-Ray  pinups - YAY!

Smile

Alicia Keys wore Spine Stilettos!

A Ribcage I-Pad Sleeve Holy sh..!

Apartment theraphy

I liked Rooney from the beginning, a friend of mine who watched O.C California years ago told me to listen to some of their songs and I still like them. The video however is a little bit too disco for me :D

Listen also to: If it were up to me



I clearly remember how L. and I sang along pretty over the top:  "Well, your mother likes my smile and your father likes my lifestyle,should I ask them what I asked you, to get the answer, yes to get the aaanswer!"

Finally some more random pics I made

 

At night at the ward 

Looking out of the window

I like how my hands look when I wear gloves

5:46 am in front of the hospital

Fireflies and looking for a lake at night

True blood? Almost: Blood orange and lemon syrup icetea!

All pics taken by Tiny (2010)

Fireflies

I love this! It's by Coso Blues

Oh you are not a patient?

One of my night shifts: I am standing in front of a ward bureau because
I had to ask for some drugs for a certain patient.
The bureau is locked because the other night watch is in a patient's room.

All of a sudden there is an old female patient standing next to me.
She asks: "Why didn't you just gave the alarm? You could have stayed in your bed!"
I look at her, pretty surprised, she starts laughing.
"Oh, well, you are not a patient?! You are one of the nurses! Haha!"
She continues laughing and goes away.
I feel amused and somehow a little bit weird.
I've never been seen as a patient until now.