December 29, 2003, DAY #62
Friends,
Well, it has been a busy month of December! Things are starting to wind down now finally. Some really big highlights since the last update! We served Christmas dinner for 9 here at the village! Of course on Friday, Menchie and I got married. We will send a separate update about that as soon as possible. Saturday, Menchie and I went out to the mountains and took a short hike. Probably about a mile circuit with about 200 ft elevation gain. Sunday, we went shopping in Pasadena to fill out some things we wanted from our gift registry, along with my brother and his family. I ate out for the first few times since the transplant at a restaurant this weekend too. We are adding spices to my food slowly with no serious side effects. Today we spent the afternoon spending Christmas money at the Mall! I guess that doesn't sound too much like winding down, but it really is getting a lot less stressful around here. My parents left today for home. It has been wonderful having them here, and they were a huge help getting everything ready for the wedding. It has been fun seeing my brother and his family this week too. Menchie and I have SOLID plans for coming down to San Diego on Thursday afternoon, and will probably return up here to City of Hope on Friday afternoon. We will be on the repeater as much as we can!
On the medical front, it looks like the meds are finally starting to get the upper hand on the rashes. The rashes are not gone yet, but they are fading slowly. The edema from the blood pressure medicine is kind of annoying, but it is not painful or debilitating at this point. I have gotten my weight loss under control a little bit more, but boy do I have to eat! I will have to continue to watch my weight carefully or I will end up weighing about 800 pounds when my metabolism starts to slow down a little. Most of my hair is starting to grow back now. I just wish I could figure out how to get rid of the beard without getting rid of everything else. The blood work below is good! HGB back up into the normal range, with RBC still struggling to get up there, but getting close again. The really good news is that my kidneys seem to be recovering well again, and my creatinine is down to 1.2, which is within the normal range. My next appointment is on Wednesday, so look for an update then!
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 12.8 | 8.9 | 9.6 | 10.5 |
| RBC | 4.20 | 4.03 | 3.86 | 3.56 | 4.08 |
| HGB | 13.0 | 13.6 | 12.7 | 12.4 | 13.8 |
| PLT | 130 | 188 | 172 | 187 | 188 |
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com