Our Hummingbird

We've placed a hummingbird feeder that Marty gave us on the outside of one of the living room windows. Henry, our male cat, loves to sit on the chair nearby and watch as the hummingbird, or birds, move in and out of the feeder. Most of the time, the hummingbird stops long enough to rest and really take a long sip from the feeder. Then he or she flits over to the top of a corkscrew willow tree that is at the edge of our backyard. Back and forth it goes all day long. I'm not sure how long the hummingbirds will stay with us before their winter migration, but it sure is fun and amusing to watch from my reading spot in the living room or the adirondack chair on the porch where I take my lunch. I managed to get a photo of one of the birds, though my zoom isn't very good. Suffice to say that you'd see lots of color and detail if you sat on the porch with me for even 5 minutes.

I saw several new patients at the clinic yesterday and one guy who used to sit next to me everyday in June while I was getting treated for fevers and then pneumonia. He finished up the post bone marrow course and was back to his home in Charlotte until last week when he developed a rash and stomach symptoms. And blam, like that, he was back in the hospital getting treated for graft versus host disease (i.e. his transplanted bone marrow cells were rejecting his own body). And in the space of a few days, he needed not only strong medicines to turn down the rejection, but also antibiotics, anti-fungal medicines and artificial nutrition through a catheter in his vein since he couldn't eat and absorb food. He was already more than 90 days out from his bone marrow transplant, and it had all come on so suddenly. Such are the complications that go with having a bone marrow transplant. And that is why my doctor recommended this multi-round chemo thing for me. It does give one respect for the serious nature of the transplant and how tenuous that course can be. I feel fortunate to be doing pretty well right now - dealing mainly with some fatigue and loss of energy after last week's chemo course. I mean it can always be worse. And I continue to be amazed by how much people can adapt and accept the negative things that happen to them.

Well have a good weekend everyone. I'll be going to clinic tomorrow and expect I'll need a transfusion of platelets. But we'll have fun anyway.