The Indian Summer of Time

Summer is making an effort to say farewell and for a couple of weeks now autumn has been peeking around the corner. Ah, one of my favorite times of the year. It was a year ago now that we found out  that my brother, Dirk, was not able to donate his stem cells and we would then wait for another donor. I remember feeling very well then and wondering why a transplant? Let's just wait and see. Maybe it will go away. Well, now a year later and 6 months after the transplant, I am finally beginning to feel as well now as I did then. The blood counts are good, the appetite is good, energy level is coming back, there was no cancer in the last bone marrow biopsy, and with therapy, my disposition and outlook are much improved. So they are tweaking the meds and adjusting dosages. I had an issue a few weeks back with GraftvsHost Disease affecting my stomach and skin. This will be my biggest challenge for the rest of my life. Most anything can set it off like an infection, bacteria, virus, fungus, or too much sun, or something I eat. As my immune system gets stronger it will be less likely, but always there. My visits to MDA should become fewer and farther between. So with all that in my pannier and Indian Summer I'm doing well.

Enjoying the Wife of My Youth (Prov. 5:18)

She was checking our pony, Scout, where she'd been bumped by a car. Scout was in a great deal of pain and we feared perhaps a fracture. I hold the halter around a post and Lynne massages the muscles for quite some time. Although not able to bear weight there appears to be no breaks that we can tell. Watch and wait. So we check repeatedly, over a period of several days. She's improving.

While I am standing there and I am watching Lynne undertaking this daily enterprize I am struck be the fact that I used to do these.  I was accustomed to doing these things. I am now no longer able to do this, and not just this one but many, many others as well, I remember feeling so gratified, thank full for Lynne and for her stepping in with my care and with the chores and all the tedious travail of a daily nature once relegated to the man of the house, and she shed not one bit of her femininity in the process. Here's to you Hon. Thanks and I love you. Now some 3 months later Scout has not so much as a limp.

Changing the Pace

When composing a blog there is the notion that I am composing and working at weaving a story or theme around some incident and use whatever creative techniques  that are available to bring out the incident and make it as memorable for others as it is for me. Then there are other times I tell the story and the nuances of the story are up to the readers to interpret or add with their imaginations to pick out the importance of different aspects of the story. The latter is easier.

And lately the latter is my inclination. #1. Since the last time I wrote,  the steroids have controlled the GVHD, the appetite is returning, and the sleep is still irregular and in shorter segments. I have followed through on my decision to get some psychological help. That goes well. We have identified some things that I can look at more closely towards working through my grief of Josh's death and the loss of my own health.
I think I am turning a corner.

#2. The other night Lynne and I were watching a T.V. comedy. One line in there struck us as being so funny that we were both laughing to the point of tears. We have not done that in so, so long.  See? Another way to say I appear to be turning a corner.