Looking forward

Day + 22 Health Score 82

I see a day in the not to distant future where people will ask how I am doing. I will answer, "I'm fine." But the resulting conversations will not be about my health. We will discuss our mutual patients, our friendships, politics, the economy, movies etc... My illness will not take center stage. Everyday, now, I continue to make progress toward that goal. I do have my work cut out for me. My doctors said I would be fatigued for some time and that is true. However, yesterday we went for a walk in the neighborhood and I had no problem walking 3/4 of a mile.

I am now on the 'Hobbit' diet, but in smaller portions: Breakfast, 2nd Breakfast, Elevensies, Lunch, Dinner, Supper and Midnight Snack. I wake up hungry. Besides all of the water weight that I lost. I also dropped 10 lbs of body mass; fat and muscle. I need to build back the muscle, (not the fat). Of course, this will be easier when I am finally off steroids completely in about two weeks. Notwithstanding, I have six months to prepare to cycle 100 km.

Now that the bone marrow transplant process is done, I may not write every day. I felt that a daily log of what the treatment process involved might help another who might be facing the same ordeal. I really feel that you get a more true account when writing in the present rather than retrospect.I hope that my experience will be of some value to others.

Last night we visited with our close friends, the Boatmans, whose son Tyler underwent surgery two weeks ago for cancer. He has a Wilm's Tumor. Tyler is six. He completed radiation therapy and is now on chemotherapy. While there, Tyler and I compared our scars and catheters. I showed him where my Hickman catheter was removed and he was very curious to know if it hurt when they removed it. I reassured him that it did not. After he saw my heart transplant scar, over the next half hour he slowly removed his steri-strips, one by one. When he finished the last one he jumped up to show me his scar as well. We also talked about how life with one kidney would be normal and he could do whatever he wanted to. He asked what if the other kidney got sick. I assured him that that would be unlikely. It amazes me what insight a six year old can have toward his condition. Kids often possess more strength in these matters than do adults.

Kevin