Four months

Here I am... now over four months post surgery. Post transplant life has not been without it's little bumps. But, in the scheme of things, everything is manageable so far.

Since I last checked in I had another episode that we are thinking may be my body's new reaction to migraines. Again, it started off with a headache and it worsened through the day. Nausea hit. Then vomiting. I could not keep food or water down, and I could not keep my medicines down. This time I couldn't recover on my own and ended up in the emergency room of a local hospital. They started fluid, pain killers, and anti-nausea medications. A few hours later I was sent home to sleep and followed up with my family doctor the next day. It was disappointing and awful, but I recovered in a few days. Now I have a couple drugs that I can take at the onset of migraines and nausea, in hopes to stay out of the emergency room in the future.

Routine blood work this week indicated my white blood cells are too close to being dangerously low. I'm supposed to get an injection soon that will hopefully, if it works like it should, stimulate my bone marrow into increasing my white blood count. But, I cannot get it until after the holiday weekend because of insurance snafus. (It's always the same thing: specialty drug, prior authorization as being medically necessary, etc.) My doctors have suggested I stay home and limit my exposure to others until I get the injection. So... here I am.

I won't dwell on all of this though. Rather, I'd like to highlight that I have been driving again. I've enjoyed outings with friends and families. I've gone shopping. I've been able to exercise with few limitations. I even went on a short road trip with my daughter and one of my closest friends to visit my father and several other friends along the way. We stopped in Holland, Michigan, to see the tulips in bloom (even though it was raining the whole time) and visited an alligator sanctuary near Kalamazoo. (Don't worry, I wear a mask and I opted out of petting or holding the alligator.) We went to a couple of museums and I ate about a half pound of fudge. I also walked up a relatively significant hill to a lookout site to view Lake Michigan. It was quite a trek for me but probably not significant enough to burn off a half pound of fudge. Oh well, I need a some fat to pinch for all those darn shots and injections anyway. It was the first time in a long time I had been away from home for an extended amount of time without it being a clinic visit. I felt free again.

Even though it may not seem like a lot to some, I still do quite a bit each day. I still have my limitations due to what I lost being sick, the surgery, and the medications, but I'm okay with that. Overall, everything can feel overwhelming at times, and I do have my down days, but it's nice to have the luxury of doing too much again. Yes, here I am. Over four months later... alive and very thankful.