It’s crazy, isn’t it?  The time is going by pretty quickly, and the seventh will mark five months since my transplant.  In some ways, five months sounds like nothing, but when I look at it from another angle, five months is almost six months, which is only 6 months away from a year (aren’t you impressed with my advanced math skills?!!).  The more time that passes, the more secure I feel.  Duh, I’m just stating the obvious, huh?

So everything is going well here.  Let’s see…I’m down to six tablets of magnesium a day…woohoo!!!  I saw a dermatologist for the first time Tuesday.  She did a full body check-up, and she said I passed with flying colors!!  Following a bone marrow transplant, it’s possible to develop a secondary cancer, and skin cancer is apparently one of the more common kinds that patients may have.  To clarify, secondary cancers can happen at any time, but from what I understand, there’s a slightly increased risk for transplant patients.  I’ll ask my doctor next week, so I can explain it better.  I don’t really worry about the secondary cancers, because I do all I can to prevent them:  checking my body for any changes, doing self-breast exams, wearing sunscreen every day (even in the winter, and even if I don’t plan to be outside a lot!), visiting various doctors.

And speaking of, I have an appointment to see an orthopedist about my knee next week.  As I wrote previously, it’s not horribly painful, but it is consistently achy, and I plan on walking several more events for Team in Training, so I need to get it checked out.  I read online that “motion is lotion”, so I’ve been keeping up several days a week with walking in the neighborhood.  I hope that my doctor will be able to pass on some exercises to me.  I definitely feel like the past months introduced me a bit to what it may feel like to age:  you suddenly find that your joints don’t feel as lubricated as they did when you were younger, you find yourself more out of breath when walking up the stairs, you put a pillow behind you when you sit on the couch because it feels good on your back.  It’s pretty shocking when you start realizing your body has more limitations.  I have a good feeling that these aches and discomforts will go away for me, but it helped to make me more sympathetic to anyone experiencing something similar.

Wow…I guess I had a lot to say about those little aches!  I can deal with the bone marrows, but not the aches?  Weird, huh?  :)  To finish informing you about all my appointments, I’ll move on to my oncologist.  My numbers have gone down a bit in the past few weeks, but they tell me that this is normal following a transplant.  A nurse practitioner also told me that I do still have some of my own blood cells left.  I thought since they said I was 100% Laura that I had 100% her cells and none of my own!  I don’t really understand it, but apparently red blood cells have an average life cycle of 120 days, and I won’t be COMPLETELY Laura for a couple more months.  Hmmmm….very confusing.  I just keep visualizing her cells surrounding mine like some sort of gang or something, then they squash them.  A little violent, I know, but I don’t trust my little guys so it’s time for them to “disappear”.

On a more positive note, remember how I mentioned in the last post that Laura and I discovered a secret to making cooking more entertaining?  OK, here’s the key to it:  pretend like you have your own cooking show, and talk to the audience while you work.  It’s much more fun with more than one person (I haven’t tried it on my own, but I’m sure it could still be entertaining…your family might think you’re crazy, but it would still be fun!).  Laura and I realized our show probably couldn’t go on the air though because there were a couple cuss words that came out while we were baking (it was totally Laura, of course!).  hahahaha  I think we would make good tv personalities though.  Katie, maybe you and Kathy could join us, and it could be a sisters’ cooking show!

Hmmm…what else did I tell you I was going to mention?  Oh, my dad’s coat!  I’ve come to love it because it’s warmer than my coat.  I know I look like a blueberry in it (see picture below), but I love it!  It’s so warm.  Guess how old it is?  It’s from the 80s!!!  Crazy, huh?  I looked up the brand of the jacket, and a notice from e-bay popped up and said something about a “vintage jacket”…hahahaha  I don’t know if my dad found it as funny as I did!  Apparently now the company specializes in ski bindings.  I really look hot when I wear the blue coat with my brown and white snow hat and my bright green mittens.  I swear that one of these years, I’ll have coordinated outerwear, but right now it’s all about feeling cozy.  :)  As far as my day in the snow this week, well, see the photos below.  It was wonderful.  My dad and I took the dogs for a walk in the neighborhood, both on the road and in the woods, I played with them outside, I took care of some to-do items, and I enjoyed some hot cocoa.  I’m looking forward to sledding again someday…I haven’t done it in such a long time!  I figure now is not the time to be practicing. 

Lastly, regarding my post from the other day, I will address the “Snuggie”.  I apologize beforehand if anyone owns one of these.  If you haven’t seen the cheesy commercial, check out the website:  https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next?tag=os|sm|go|tm .  In theory, it seems like a good idea, however, it just seems ridiculous to me!  Why can’t you simply put more layers on when you’re sitting around on the couch or heading out to a football game?  You have to listen to what they say on the website…my favorite part is when they talk about your hands being “trapped inside” a blanket, and how challenging this can be when you need to reach for something…”trapped”?  Seriously?!!  I don’t have that many problems with my blankets, do you?  Every time I see the commercial, it cracks me up…they are so goofy looking!

OK, there, I got it out.  I didn’t realize I felt so strongly about it.  Again, if you have one, please don’t take offense!  You’ll probably have the last laugh anyway when I find myself “trapped” under a blanket someday. 

Another long post by Julie Matthews.  What can I say?  I’m feeling well, although I was pretty tired today.  I ran out of Ativan, and I did not have a good night’s sleep.  I was still able to fall asleep, but I woke up all throughout the night, and without the Ativan, I had a very difficult time falling asleep each time.  I also had nightmare after nightmare.  I look forward to when I don’t need any aid to help me sleep, but right now it’s more important that I’m able to sleep so my body can stay strong.  I’ll deal with the sleeping situation when it’s a more appropriate time to do so.

Hope you enjoy the photos below!  Can you tell who I spend most of my time with?  :)  They’re my best buds, and I’m so happy to be home with them.

Enjoy your Friday, and the warmer weather that’s coming with it (if you’re in VA, that is). 

Lots of love,

Julie