Ceremonies Worth Celebrating

I peeled the cucumber and sliced it into a bowl, and then I went out and picked some tomatoes and washed them and sliced them as well and then I added some green onions. My mouth was beginning to water. To this I added vinegar, olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Then we sat down to eat. It was my first bite of fresh vegtables since the end of February. It tasted soooo.... good. I had been craving both fresh fruit and vegtables and today when I saw Dr. Khouri I asked him if I could. As a SCT recipient, fresh produce puts me at risk for bacteria that could be present from the fields and harvest and handling of the produce. Usually it takes up to 6 months or so for recipient's immune systems to be adequate to tolerate those risks. Since I am just a couple of weeks past 3 months it gives me a real indication of how well I have done. Dr. Khouri said I could! Lynne just sat down with some watermelon. You know, I think I'll have some. Thanks be to God!

Keeping on Chugging Along

I met with Dr. Khouri today and although the results were preliminary, they were good . Some meds need adjusting. The magnesium counts were low as were the tachrolimus counts. The bowels have been giving me a bit of a problem and that could be GVHD related and an analysis  tomorrow should answer that. So it is more adjustments to a process that is working well. So we keep chugging along

Growing Old Gracefully

"As youth recedes into the rearview mirror, and your face slides south in succumbing to time and gravity, and your joints ache from decades of overuse, and your short-term memory becomes a sieve, something curious happens. You get happier. I don't mean the ecstatic happiness you periodically feel amidst the turbulence of your teens or 20's. I'm talking about a growing contentment, an acceptance of yourself and of life as it is, a grateful appreciation for each moment that you continue to draw breath. As the wise old coots  interviewed in our Last Word this week would tell you (see page40), it's not a bad thing to know - to really know - that the number of your remaining breaths is finite."   (Copied from the Mar. 12, 2012  issue of, The Week, by William Falk)

The preceding is a grain of wisdom harvested from the copious magazines on the tables populating the fertile waiting rooms of MD Anderson. As I read that pearl, I thought to myself, I want to be that person, the one who is a friend of contentment,  a lover of my own soul, as well as the souls of others, one not given to bitterness or sour tones, the one who adds flavor to blandness and passion to the ordinary and the mundane, AND DO THAT as  "age" becomes a verb, as in "to age" for which Roget lists as synonyms,  

Main Entry:	age/eɪdʒ/ Show Spelled
Part of Speech:	verb
Definition:	become older
Synonyms:	decline, deteriorate, develop, get along, grow, grow feeble, grow old, grow up, mature, mellow, push, put mileage on, ripen, wane

As I "age", I do decline, deteriorate, and all those other things listed above and they are an automatic and a natural result of aging and they do not tend to make me happier. It don't work that way though do it? (Pardon the vulgar.) I really want to share the writers optimism, that this growing old gracefully is an automatic corollary of the geriatric process. I do, so want to be that kind of person. Yes sirree Bob.  For me though, it does not come naturally, nor automatically. I do, though, repeatedly resolve, to weed out the sprouts of bitterness and  the roots of crabbiness and to not cultivate covetousness and resentment and all "The heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks that Flesh is heir to."(Shakespeare says through his man, Hamlet)  I want to be that person who becomes happier, the one Mr. Falk is fortunate enough to know. I must admit sometimes it works and I catch glimpses of that guy. He just never sticks around long and I find myself asking, "Who was that the guy?' 

   ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Romans 7:18-25 NIV

It Goes With The Territory

It has been a long long time since last I shared with you how things are going. I had an opportunity to visit with the daughter of a man, about my age who had a stem cell transplant around mid November last year who is also a patient of Dr. Khouri. She teared up as she related his difficult journey, starting with a heart attack the day after his transplant resulting in a stint, 2 times. Since then he has been hospitalized frequently for complications, including Graft vs Host Disease (GVHD). She said that the last time he was at the Dr.'s office he was discouraged, extremely so. He is tired of being sick.

When I am asked, "How am I?" I have to say, "I am doing very well", especially after hearing stories like that. I have had very little about which to complain. Complain I do though at times and discouragement I have felt, even depressed at times. It can't be as bad though as my friend's story. However it does go with the territory of being a long term patient on long term medications(30 plus pills a day) and the energy tank being on empty. So I am doing well, as well as anyone going through something like this, Physically I am doing doing much better than most. I have my issues with GVHD. I have avoided serious complications and on Mon. I have another Bone Marrow biopsy and CT scan and we will get an idea how the transplant is doing. This is the 90 day mark. The next milestone will be 6 months and that will be when meds will be really adjusted. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks for caring.