Day Three

It's a new month and I'm entering the final stretch of my stem call transplant: recovery.

Yesterday I started feeling weaker—as predicted—and I was out of breath after walking downtown (a bit over a mile round trip) at a leisurely pace to collect a Sunday paper. Because I knew that was likely to happen it didn't freak me out, and the Mayo Care Team was not alarmed. In fact, my stamina is likely to decrease further before I hit bottom (around Tuesday or Wed) and start to rebound. So I'm preparing myself for All Ahead Slow on my engine setting his week.

I completed the crossword puzzle with Susan and Ceilee yesterday, and not much else. Though Susan had only left Rochester last Monday evening for a break from every day duty as my primary care giver, she couldn't resist sneaking down from Duluth for a 26-hour appearance on the weekend, and I'm glad she didn't. She has come to mean so much to me that my heart was filled with joy immediately as she arrived early yesterday afternoon. Yippee!

The three of us (with Ceilee) celebrated my extended appetite and energy Saturday evening (before today's diminishment) be eating at an Irish pub called Whistle Binkie's (amazingly enough, there are two locations in town), that featured Scotch eggs and Irish Stew. While the food was average, the ambiance was delightful and we laughed a lot—and that was good enough for us.

As July segued into August, I was up in the night a lot, somewhat disoriented, but never nauseous. It was kinda surreal and floaty, but I'd rather have just slept right through it. Today, at blood draw the nurse had trouble getting blood to flow from my Hickman port which meant fooling around with it at Mayo. The point of having a port installed is to facilitate blood draws, not complicate them, but sometimes it doesn't work that way. Oh well.

Annie arrived today from Floyd VA, and it was great adding her smiling face to the room. She'll be here for a week, overlapping with Ceilee for the next two days. Tonight Ceilee grilled pork chops, corn on the cob, brussels sprouts, and jalapeño poppers. Olé! I only ate about half of mine but that was plenty of calories for this recovering boy.

Meanwhile, Ceilee has been mildly inveigling Annie and I to get involved in Pokémon Go. Apparently he's been able to collect and capture goodies on his smart phone just traveling back and forth from Transplant House to Mayo's on my mundane daily transits. Those little darlin's are everywhere, and it just looked like sidewalks to me. While it's highly unlikely I'll get sucked up in the rush, it doesn't mar my vicarious enjoyment on Ceilee's behalf. He could be doing worse things, such as trying to make sense of Donald Trump's recent attack on a gold medal winner.

For me it's mostly a quiet day of recuperation and trying to regain strength. I am incredibly thankful to be surrounded by loved ones at this time.