Quote of the Day #2

"He's a useless type of person."

Spoken by someone describing an acquaintance who she felt didn't contribute anything to her person or society as a whole. Which, really, it's not THAT unusual of a statement, it was probably more in the delivery of the line. It was a phrase that came out like a matter of fact/casual statement like, "Saturday? Yeah, Saturday comes after Friday."

Sleepy, Sneezy, and Snow White all in one!

No excuses, I know. I really should have posted before today. It's just that things have begun to move a little more slowly. I felt like there wasn't anything majorly different--just more time recovering. The doctor's appointments have now moved out to once every 2 weeks rather than weekly. My next appt is in a week, at which point Lister said he is considering pushing out the time between our visits even more. I'm hoping that if he pushes out the visits, then the port would also be ready to be taken out. It would be nice to be able to take a shower again (I've had to have baths only for the past 5 months).

Any of the side effects that I'm experiencing are nothing new: extreme dry eyes, fatigue, skin rash, and other minor GvH symptoms. One thing that I can say is that the cramping in my hands and feet has let up almost completely. That's been a big relief. My face is still a bit puffy from the prednisone and interestingly enough, all of my hair hasn't come back yet. It's mostly there, but I'm not the hairy beast I used to be. I think it's because I have the GvH going on in my system (thinking that my body is using the protein to work rather than go to my hair and nails). Like everything on this recovery, it seems like it's just a matter of waiting and resting. You know, the other day, I slept 17 hours in one day!! Unbelievable! It seems ridiculous to me that I could be THAT tired. Lister says it's normal. He says that GvH normally will make a patient tired, but on top of that, the fact that I've gotten the GvH so soon after the transplant is going to make me even more tired. (My body hasn't had a chance to recover from the transplant). Oh well. I guess I'll just roll back over and sleep some more.

Newness

Tonight, I looked through images on the internet of babies for a card I wanted to make for a friend who just had a baby. Actually, she's the first of my friends to have a baby, so I'm ridiculously excited to go and see her and the new one tomorrow.

As I'm looking at the images of the babies, in all their baldness with chubby cheeks and big eyes, I can't help but think of cancer patients and how they look surprisingly similar. Then I remember that when you receive your last dose of treatment, it is considered your "birthday." For instance, mine would be December 12th, because that was the last day that I received chemo with this transplant. Some treatment centers actually give you a balloon or card to celebrate. I just thought that was an interesting parallel--being bald and chubby-faced, and in the case of donor transplants new DNA--again...a new life.