Since I haven't posted for a while...

I figured that I SHOULD. ;-) Unfortunately, though, there isn't much to update on. With the appointments with Lister spread out to every 3 weeks, nothing (medically at least) happens between that time. Which is GOOD (don't get me wrong), but there isn't as much to report on as there was previously.

In the meantime, I have been keeping busy painting large plywood stars. Why you ask? The city of Pittsburgh won the hosting of the Baseball All-Stars game this year. To celebrate they want to fill the Penn Avenue corridor of downtown with plywood stars that are 4', 6' and 8' in diameter. They put out a Call for Artists to submit design proposals the stars in May "to depict and/or express actual events, places and people from Pittsburgh’s past, present and potential future that represent our city’s brightest citizens, hopes and amenities."


I submitted two and they were both accepted. The first, a Pittsburgh token, was Mr. Fred Rogers (he's on a 4 foot star). The second, is George Ferris, the inventor of the Ferris Wheel (he's on a 6 foot star). I finished painting them on Saturday and started the final glazing and varnishing layers yesterday. Of course, if I could just get this weather to dry up a bit, it would greatly help the drying time!

SOME progress!

Finally, I have some progress to mention! On Thursday, I met with Lister and he finally felt that I could begin to take down the steroid amount! Granted he is taking me off of it VERRRRRRRY slowly (just 5 mg less every OTHER day), but HEY! it's better than nothing. My next appointment isn't for another 3 weeks, when he'll hopefully take me down an additional 5mg. At this rate, I should be completely off the steroid by....21 weeks. WOAH. That's almost another 6 months!!
*Sigh*
Oh well, right? It's better than cancer.

On another note, I think (fingers crossed) that I have had my last bone marrow biospsy. Or at least my last one for a while (the last one required for my current treatment). And I just gotta say, SONUVAGUN! There's is NO easy way around one of those things. I try the whole imagery thing, deep breaths, short breaths--you name it, but really, NOTHING is making that needle in your hip hurt less unless it's a numbing drug. Luckily the lady that did me on Thursday was of the school of thought: "the more juice I can give you for that, the better." That made me hold her in very high esteem. :) Why would they do anything else for the patient? Just give us the juice, man! The worst that can happen is that our butt cheek is numb for a few hours afterwards and surely that can't be worse than trying to drink water after having a filling done at the dentist, right?