Day 75
I'ts been a few days, it seems, but John, at least, is well. I have a bit of a stomach thing and have been isolating myself for a few days. You have to be careful with germs even when you are well, so I'm now a walking ad for Purell, which actually works, by the way. Then too, there are the Clorox wipes that I have been using twice daily on anything John touches, but now I just carry around.
The clinic is switching into a more active mode with John, in terms of reducing various drugs. He is on the last days of Prednisone and no real signs of GVHD have recurred. His color has taken on a bit of the gray shade that transplant patients often get, but they say it will go away in time. He still has some of the hand tremors, but those may be drug induced. His last antiviral medications stop tomorrow and the Cipro ends today. The second immune supressant, FK506, will be reduced next week.
All that is really, really good and the clinic folks are thrilled with how he's doing. If you think about how he might be at this point without the treatment, it's even more to be thankful for. It's best not to spend too much time thinking about "what if" though.
In other news, Courtney has gone through a really hard decision-making process about college this year. I tried to help, but the best I could offer was that she is adult enough now to make the call and adult enough now to know that grown-ups sometimes don't know what the best decision would be any more than anyone else. Anyway, she made a prudent and well thought out choice to stay in Atlanta this Fall and attend the new SCAD college branch in Midtown. She has visited the campus and is working on the application process. She is thinking of living in the dorm that is nearby. Anyway, she's made a full glass of lemonade from a half of a lemon. I've enjoyed the six weeks or so she has spent here this Summer and it will be fun to have her nearby in Atlanta for a while.
This just in - Debbie, who was to leave today from Atlanta for her ABA convention duties, has been dealing day and night with sick dogs (you don't even want to know). She had them at the vet yesterday, but they were even sicker in the night. Of course, it stormed at the same time, the power went out, lightening struck a tree that fell in the yard scratching her car. She got the car out and got backed into by someone, took the dogs to the vet for IV treatments (no, they still don't know what it is), was told she had to monitor them closely for several days, and so is busy finding others to cover for her in Chicago, while rescheduling flights for herself and me, since I had reservations to be in Atlanta a few days while she was out here.
Did you ever just have one of those lives?
The clinic is switching into a more active mode with John, in terms of reducing various drugs. He is on the last days of Prednisone and no real signs of GVHD have recurred. His color has taken on a bit of the gray shade that transplant patients often get, but they say it will go away in time. He still has some of the hand tremors, but those may be drug induced. His last antiviral medications stop tomorrow and the Cipro ends today. The second immune supressant, FK506, will be reduced next week.
All that is really, really good and the clinic folks are thrilled with how he's doing. If you think about how he might be at this point without the treatment, it's even more to be thankful for. It's best not to spend too much time thinking about "what if" though.
In other news, Courtney has gone through a really hard decision-making process about college this year. I tried to help, but the best I could offer was that she is adult enough now to make the call and adult enough now to know that grown-ups sometimes don't know what the best decision would be any more than anyone else. Anyway, she made a prudent and well thought out choice to stay in Atlanta this Fall and attend the new SCAD college branch in Midtown. She has visited the campus and is working on the application process. She is thinking of living in the dorm that is nearby. Anyway, she's made a full glass of lemonade from a half of a lemon. I've enjoyed the six weeks or so she has spent here this Summer and it will be fun to have her nearby in Atlanta for a while.
This just in - Debbie, who was to leave today from Atlanta for her ABA convention duties, has been dealing day and night with sick dogs (you don't even want to know). She had them at the vet yesterday, but they were even sicker in the night. Of course, it stormed at the same time, the power went out, lightening struck a tree that fell in the yard scratching her car. She got the car out and got backed into by someone, took the dogs to the vet for IV treatments (no, they still don't know what it is), was told she had to monitor them closely for several days, and so is busy finding others to cover for her in Chicago, while rescheduling flights for herself and me, since I had reservations to be in Atlanta a few days while she was out here.
Did you ever just have one of those lives?
