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I’m a Bad Blogger

I’m a bad blogger.  A bad, bad blogger.  If blogging was my job, I would have been fired weeks ago.  My advertisers would have left me, my followers would have written me hate mail, I would seriously be questioning my place in the blogosphere, and I’d be broke.  But thankfully, blogging is not my job, because I just haven’t felt like blogging lately.  I’ve been pretty “meh” about the whole thing.  Maybe if this blog was about recapping HGTV shows, I might have been more into it.  I could write every day about the Property Brothers, and how even though I love them, I get enraged every time they use a hideous modern tile on a fireplace, which is 95% of the time.  Fireplaces are supposed to be brick!!  I could write essays on how the couple from “Desert Flippers” is just the very poor man’s version of Chip and Johanna Gaines from “Fixer Upper”.  But I appreciate them because they made me love Chip and Johanna all over again!  I could write haikus about “Flip or Flop” and how I couldn’t stand Tarek and Christina at first, but now I kind of want to be friends with them.

A Flip or Flop Haiku

You flip houses in 30 minutes

I only care about the last 5

I like the reveal

 

Is that a haiku?  God, I need to get back to work.

But sadly, this isn’t an HGTV recap blog.  It’s a blog about me.  At some point I think I got sick of talking about myself and just got really turned off by the whole idea.  I also ran out of things to say.  I’m surprised that I wrote as much as I did in the hospital, considering how much worse I was feeling then.  I think I just had more things to report on and had more thoughts about those things.  Since then, there really hasn’t been much going on, unless you consider sleep to be a thrilling topic.  I did manage to write 3 blog posts in the last month but hated all of them, so they never saw the light of day.  Every other time I thought about writing, I just said “meh” and went back to watching House Hunters International or Beachfront Bargain Hunt.  What’s the difference now?  Well, I just blew the dust off my calculator and worked my first full day at home on Wednesday, so I figure I really have no excuse not to write an update.  So here it is:

I came home on Day +13 and its now Day +65.  I can’t believe how fast the time has flown!  Though, I have been sleeping pretty much that whole time.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  But I have been sleeping A LOT.  A lot, a lot.  On most days I sleep until 1 or 2pm, then sometimes nap again in the late afternoon.  On days I go to the hospital, I pretty much pass out as soon as I get home.  Recovery is sleepy business!  But since I am back to working at home a little, I am trying to force myself back onto a more normal schedule.

Other than being tired and sloth-like, I feel pretty good.  I haven’t had any major complications since I’ve been home.  I was initially going to the hospital every day for checkups and treatment, but now I only go twice a week, which is great.  The only treatment I receive at the hospital is a magnesium infusion.  All other medications I can take at home.  I am down to 25 pills a day which, really, isn’t that much.  Sully and I often walk the almost 2 miles home from the hospital, we go for walks in the park, do light yoga twice a week and we even went to the beach for a few hours last week.  Guess what I did at the beach?  Yep, I slept the whole time.  But it was an ocean breeze filled nap.  I have also been cooking quite a bit.  At first, I needed to take breaks, but now I can pretty much handle a whole meal like normal.  Cooking as an endurance sport; I can really get behind that.

On the transplant front, things couldn’t be better!  My blood counts are all up and in the normal range (chart above).  I haven’t needed a blood transfusion in 53 days!  I had a bone marrow biopsy a few weeks ago (You haven’t truly lived until you’ve had someone stick a hollow needle into your hip bone while you are awake.  It’s awesome!), it showed that my bone marrow is 100% my sister and 0% me, which is exactly where it should be.   All evidence shows that the transplant is working beautifully!  I honestly think it is the coolest thing.  I know it’s been the plan all along, but to see it in action is just so awesome.

In other medical news, I got my port and lumens removed about 2 weeks ago.  It was a horribly painful and violent experience, where they essentially yanked the port out of my body after it had been in there for 6 weeks (sans medication), but it only lasted about 20 seconds, so it was, thankfully, over very quickly.  It feels great to finally have the port out and feel like (and shower like) a normal human again!

So I only have 35 more days until Day +100 when things can start to get back to normal a little bit.  At that point I can eat a salad!  Ugh.  Go back to working at the office.  Drink wine!  Eat at restaurants.  All the good stuff that makes up a normal life.  For me, anyway.

I’ll try to update the blog more often now.  But please know that I am doing very well.  I really appreciate everyone’s good thoughts, texts, cards and emails.  And if you got in touch with me and I haven’t responded yet, I’m sorry, sloths take a while to do things.  I will get back to you soon.

Love to you all.

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Do You See What I See?

Guys.  Do you see it?  Look closely at the picture…

My white counts are up!  And I have Neutrophils!  After 12 days of none.  This means the transplant is working!!!  And working very quickly.  Today is day 11; they say that for many people, counts don’t start coming up until day 14-21.  This is awesome!

You know what else is awesome?  I am doing so well that I might be discharged TOMORROW!  Normally they do not discharge people this early.  But since we live a mere 30 blocks away, I was told from the get-go that I may be getting out early.  Since I can be at the hospital in less than 10 minutes should something go wrong, they feel ok about letting me go.  And I really have been feeling fine and very much like myself for the last week or so.  I’m basically just hanging out here watching TV and getting my meds.  And since most of my meds can be switched to oral versions, there really isn’t too much keeping me here.  So barring any fever or other complications between today and tomorrow, I will be sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night.  Yay 🙂

MK

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I’m not sure how many men out there are manly enough to shave off their wife’s hair when they request it, but I’ve got one of them.  He is my champion.   The Red Viper to my Tyrion Lannister in a trial by combat, except successful (spoiler alert for Game of Thrones fans! Sorry!).  He handled the buzzer with focus and experience, though I can’t imagine it was easy to approach me with it.  And Jenn was there to step in with the scissors when my lions’ mane was too much for the buzzer to handle.  In the end it was a successful feat.  My hair is mostly gone, save a quarter of an inch or so.

It wasn’t a fun experience, but it was an experience.  And I’m glad my handsome champion was by my side, doing the difficult thing that had to be done.  And it did have to be done.  My beautiful hair was falling out in consistent handfuls.  It just became too much.   Too messy and too difficult to keep experiencing minute after minute.  So now it’s done.  I’m bald.  And I’m told, two baldies are better than one!  Yes, I was told that by my fellow baldie.

It’s certainly weird being bald after having longish hair for the better part of 35 years.

Here are some baldie observations:

(1.)             It’s cold in this world!  Holy moly!  It was the first thing I noticed as soon as the hair came off.  I was freezing!  I know you all are going through a heat wave and all but it’s been a lovely 74 degrees in here for the last 2 weeks.  And 74 degrees with hair and 74 degrees without hair is are two very different things.

(2.)            I shaved my head yesterday, so I’ve had one night of sleeping on it.   It was basically like I was a porcupine and my spikes fit perfectly into the little spaces in the fabric of my pillowcases and pillow.  It was weird.

(3.)            It only takes me 5 minutes to shower (one handed might add, since I have to keep my port dry).

(4.)            In reality I don’t really feel terribly different, but in pictures, I feel like I look like I have lost an appendage.

(5.)            I also feel like Katniss Everdeen.  I know, I know, Katniss never shaved her head, but the Hunger Games is on TV right now and I feel pretty badass!  So Katniss it is.  Where are my bow and arrows?

(6.)            I have an evenly shaped head with no significant canyons or ridges.  God is good.  Sorry to my nephew Matt if you are reading this!  I love your head 🙂

Here is a quick photo tribute to my hair.  See you soon friend…

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