ssshh - keep very still

What's the longest time you've had to remain completely motionless.  Unless you were in World War Two fighting the Japanese in a far Eastern jungle where hiding became an art form I would guess your answer would be a few minutes.

I've just had to suffer 3 days tethered to a machine that pumped 10 litres of my blood out of my body, through its centrifuge and then back into me.  This took 6 hours.  6 hours during which I was not allowed to move for fear of the delicate cannulas inserted into veins in either arm would dislodge.  Even a slight movement would  mean the machine's alarm going off, a stern look off my nurse and much fiddling around to get it working again.

I couldn't even lift my hand to scratch an itch so had to rely on my sister to scratch any for me.  She also had to feed and water me.  Thank you Corinne!

The purpose of all this?  To extract stem cells from my blood to be transplanted back into me at some time in the future.

I now await the transplant date safe in the knowledge that enough cells were harvested for 2 transplants should I relapse in the future.

I now want to get the transplant over and done with.

Bring it on!