My Week

Here is Bluey and her pal Arlene. Thanks to Arlene for this photo, she must have been cleaning way back in the corner of the closet!

First of all thanks for your patience this week. I got seriously slack and that may have worried some folks.... but no news is good news in this case.

Monday afternoon I saw the physio again and he worked my back a bit but basicaly I've done what I can, except to keep up with the stretches and excercise. So unless I get a relapse I won't be seeing him soon.

Tuesday we went to clinic and had my lumens flushed and blood work done then waited to see Schoozenbootz and we got a very good chunk of information this time. I will always have a high platelete count (higher then your normal) because of the missing spleen so the current rise in my platelettes is my normal.
And they do not want me to get GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease) where my new cells recognize my real body as a foreigner and try to attack it. And they don't use that as a way to get rid of the last of the fibrosis (scaring) in my bone marrow. That's a treatment that they use for chornic luekemia not not worth the risk in my case as it will probably go away in the next two years without their help. They don't do a bone marrow biopsy until day 100 and they also do a DNA test on the new cells at that time to confirm they are the right ones....ie not my old ones regrowing. So it is okay to not have GVHD! and I really am doing very well.

We were pretty excited so we went to a morning movie and saw the Singer it was excellent. rest and walks later.

Wednesday we nested and stayed in our PJ's all day and just vegged. It was ANZAC Day where Australia and New Zealand celbrate the men and women that gave their lives in the various wars. It's much bigger then Rememberance day here as it falls on the anniversary of Galipoli. google it.

Thursday we saw two movies at Portside Cinemas. The curse of the Golden Flower very neat and a huge scale. Very bloody and tragic so we watched a second one. Scoop so we had a comedy to finish on. It was okay.

Friday started early in the clinic again this time for imuno globulin (every Friday). I felt good so we tried to find a chair and foot stool because the one we ordered has been back ordered....again. we went to a new area where thare are several furniture shops in two close building. It did end up exhausting me but we got them all covered without finding anything as good as the one we ordered! So i slept for a bit then Jo and Gene arrived for as short visit.

Friday night was casual and good as we got caught up but we were all in bed by 9:00pm! Next morning we went out for my first resturant meal! We had stopped at this outdoor place walking distance from here before I went into hospital, and the kitchen is open to see and it's sparkling. We stopped on Thursday and double checked that my meal could be fresh cooked from fridge to heat to table. They were great and on the morning he had put us in a nice table and reserved the one next to us so we would have a little 'breathing room' Very thoughtful!. Great meal, great visit then we all took a ferry ride to the other end of the route and back. We were on the top deck and it was fresh and very nice. i was a little tired when they left at noon but a nap revived me and Bluey made great ribs for dinner.

She is amused each time the nurse at the clinic asks me how I'm eating and I say I'm not eating as much as I used to. 'cause she rekons I am shoveling it in. I may be but it's not sticking all that good, nutrition wise, cause I'm still losing muscle bulk and weight I think. Anyway I'm getting some good advice from friends on that front and have upped my carbs and have felt a litte more energy is available. I really have been dong more activities so that's good. I just need to ramp it up so I build some bulk. Tommorrow we hit the mini gym in the building and I'll do three rows on the rowing machine, then rest and three rows then two rows then one row. Oh it's tiring just thinking about it! Who knows It may go way better than that. No matter what..... it will be extra excercise and that's good.

Today we are blogging, emailing and reading the Sunday paper.

I thinking about Gayla's new lenses in her eyes.... old ones slide out new ones dropped in. Amazing... and she can see right away!
Ginger is on a revialtized hip and praticising her dance moves for the big birthday party next week. Twin cousins Jim and John are significantly older.....then i am ;-) actually it's only a few years but they always were so big to me. Have fun guys. I can't pass up the opportunity to mention my second cousin(?) John's daughter Lauren who is completing her degree this week and has just announced that she is receipient of a Fulbright Grant. Congrats Lauren.

I'm also thinking about my sister Melissa and her fiancee Mark and Mark's up coming fight of his own.

I used to love Spring in the Pacific Northwest of the continent. So get out and enjoy it. Oh yeah the weather here, as we close in on autumn, is a cool 26 degrees C during the day and makes good sleeping at night as it goes down to 18. ;-)

Bluey is a rock. And despite losing weight ... I still have a roll.

more later
Chris