We Gave Thanks

Well we had a small intimate group for the hike Thanksgiving day up to Rattlesnake lodge. This is the same hike we did last year, only the weather was very different. Last year we had a cold, raw rain, and Holly didn't even want to hike. This is a woman from Kansas, you know where they survive grueling heat in the summer and icy cold in the winter. Soft, I tell you, she's gone soft after all these years in NC. But yesterday we had really nice weather and she was happy to hike like the rest of us. It was in the fifties and clear, a beautiful day. Our hiking group consisted of Susan, Donna W, Ellen, Holly and me. Oh yeah and we took Riley, Donna Z's little dachshund too. We had all piled into the Prius and drove almost to the Parkway where the start of the trial is. There were so many other cars at the trailhead that we had no place to park initially, but by the time I got us turned around to park on the side of the road, someone had left. The hike was excellent; even Riley thought so. We did take some photos since one family was kind enough to take our picture with everyone's camera. I don't have my camera-computer cord with me so I'll have to upload the photos when I get back to Hillsborough.

Dinner was terrific. I took pictures of that too. I'll load those photos too next week. We ended up with quite a crew, the hikers above plus Patty, Ann, Maggi, Donna Z, Kathleen, and Karen H. Freddi couldn't attend since she went to Fla to be with her Dad who isn't doing well. We missed her. When Susan told me that we would be having 11 people for dinner instead of the 8 or so I had counted on, I decided that we would need a second pecan pie (this in addition to all of the regular food and the pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and fudge that we already had). So Thanksgiving morning I threw another one together quickly. I hate to be without enough and 11 people cannot possibly share one pecan pie. But we did actually, and I got to bring the 2nd pie home as well as the fudge and sweet potato casserole that was left over. (I'm currently baking fruitcake while I write. This is a good time to have lots of sweets around, especially to share with others). Before we ate, I told everyone how thankful I was to be there, literally and metaphorically, and Donna W said a nice prayer. Only the pilgrims could have been more thankful or grateful, and I'm sure they had less to eat than we did.

Holly and I ran together yesterday morning-hills, hills, and more hills. I had to walk most of those. But today I ran/walked the Beaver Lake route that is 6 miles long with 2 big hills, and I did some better. It's getting a bit easier each day.

Photo: View of downtown Asheville from our backyard. I may have included this one previously; I still like it.

Shoe Update

I'm in the clinic sitting in my Duke blue recliner on side A. Kristen, the twenty something yr old with aplastic anemia is to my left, wearing her best fancy shoes. Today is her last day in the clinic and for the occasion she is wearing a pair of grey pointy toed shoes with little bows on them. They have, oh about a 2 inch heel. She is also wearing her best Italian, chic jeans or some that approximate that anyway. My older guy Bob and his wife are seated to my right doing a crossword puzzle. He is waiting to see if his stem cell counts are up so that he can proceed with his transplant. She is waiting for her labs and then the provider is going to pull the Hickman catheter in her chest since she won't be needing blood or platelet transfusions after this. They have just given her a pain pill so that it won't be so uncomfortable when they finally do yank that thing out of her chest (I have this in my near future too). I'm waiting on my counts to learn if I need anything today. I don't expect to need any blood products since the bone marrow is producing now. I may need a magnesium or potassium pill since those get used up by all the bone marrow activity making new cells.

Later we will head west on I-40 to Asheville loaded down with pie and other sweets. I hope everyone reading this has a terrific plan for their Thanksgiving. And do give thanks because we all have a great deal to be grateful for. It's good to take at least one day to acknowledge that and share that spirit with others.

Holiday Exuberance Abounds

I was amazed at how upbeat everyone was at the clinic yesterday. The ladies at the front desk were extra cheerful. The nurses were extra cheerful and reminded me that we had a "Turkey breakfast" as they called it in the family support lounge. And the other patients were pretty cheerful too.

One was a guy with his wife who'd driven from Charlotte at 6 in the morning to make it to the clinic in time for his appt. He has a type of B cell lymphoma and needs a bone marrow transplant of his own cells. But they have had a hard time getting enough cells for the transplant procedure. I don't know all of the details, but he said that he'd had so much chemo that his bone marrow couldn't produce enough stem cells at one time for a transplant. They had already gotten some from his hip bone using the big biopsy needle, but they could only get 85% of what they needed. Now that his bone marrow is producing less, he is always anemic with a hemoglobin around 9.0 and has a decreased number of platelets. He bruises easily too because the platelet number is lower than it should be. But he said, after a year of chemo, his lymphoma is gone, and he is grateful every single day to wake up and be with his wife of 53 yrs. And I could tell he meant it. I hope he gets 100% of the bone marrow cells needed for the transplant so that he gets another 3 yrs or 13 yrs or 23 yrs with his wife.

I also sat close to the twenty something year old from a few weeks back; she was dressed, as usual, in her spiffy jeans and Italian pointy toed shoes. She was really cheerful too because Wed will be her last day in the clinic; she finishes up 43 days here including 6 days of chemo, her transplant, and many days coming to the clinic. Wednesday she gets to go back to Greenville NC where she is from. I did finally ask her about her diagnosis. She gave me the answer with a few "yes Mam's" thrown in. My immediate reaction every time I hear a twenty year old say that is "God I must seem old to them." But then I realize I do seem old to them, much the same way a middle aged woman with grey hair seemed old to me when I was 21 or 22. Anyway, she has aplastic anemia, a rare disorder in which the bone marrow stops producing. It leads to low cell counts and can be very dangerous since you need those cells for fighting infection, making platelets so that you don't bleed to death, and throwing out red blood cells to carry oxygen all around your body. In short, she needed someone else's bone marrow to replace this faulty version of hers that had stopped working. Fortunately her sister was a perfect match and now after 43 days here, she'll get to go home tomorrow. She was really, really happy the way that young people are when they get to go somewhere they really want (a kid at the circus comes to mind). I pointed out to her that now she would have any allergies of her sister. She said that she'd take a few sniffles in exchange for the gluten/wheat allergy she previously had. She said that she was looking forward to eating bread and pizza from now on. And it hadn't been all that bad, as she put it (I think she meant the chemo and the transplant and all the days in the clinic). Clearly, she's mastered the art of gratefulness. It will stand her in good stead.

Of course, I was extra cheerful yesterday too because my counts are coming up, and we get to go to Asheville for the long holiday w-e. And I got a great Thanksgiving card yesterday from my former colleague Suzanne who worked with me at the Health Dept in Asheville. She told me about reading the blog and thinking of me & Holly when she travels. It's so lovely when people take the time to write a note like she did, snail mail and all. Thanks Suzanne, it made my day even happier.

I've been on a cooking spree the last few days. Yesterday I made the sweet potato casserole with pecans for Thanksgiving and a new pasta sauce for dinner that my Dad turned me onto. Today I've made a big batch of granola to give to friends and a large pan of fudge with pecans. My Mom used to let me do her holiday cooking, but she always commented on the fact that I use so many nuts. Well yes, many of the things I like to cook call for nuts. This time of year it seems to be pecans. In fact, I keep stepping on them as I run through town in the mornings. We have a lot of pecan trees here in Hillsborough. This morning on my run, I saw a guy standing in his yard just eating them out of the shell from the tree in his yard. Maybe we need a pecan tree too. I'll have to get on that.

So tomorrow it's off to the clinic in the morning and then we head west and up for the long w-e holiday. What fun. Maybe we'll get some snow in Asheville for Thanksgiving.
Photo: See I do have some hair-short, grey, and curly.

I'm Keen on You

Today's visit to the clinic was another in and out, speedy gonzalez visit. I thought it might be short and sweet because my counts were just beginning to come up on Saturday when I went to the clinic. I thought they would be even higher today which means that I didn't need to have a blood transfusion or platelets. And sure enough, the platelets were 50,000 today up from 42,000 on Saturday; the hemoglobin was 9.2, the same as Saturday; and my white blood cell count was up to 1.0 from 0.4. Oh excellent news! I saw the Nurse Practitioner too, who said that I am free to go to Asheville for the Thanksgiving holiday. She wants to check my counts again on Wednesday just to make sure everything is alright, and then it's off until Monday. Yippee!

If I could split myself multiple ways, I'd celebrate by spending Thanksgiving not only with my crew in Asheville, but also the great group of friends here who are doing a turkey, and my sister's house in Columbus Georgia where my Mom, Brian, and both sisters will be, and with my Dad, Lynn, and Mama in Charleston. I'd love to give thanks and celebrate with everyone who has supported me so much during these last 6 months. I am truly grateful to you all. Think of me when you eat sweet potato casserole or dessert, my favorite parts of the meal.

They had a big thanksgiving breakfast for us in the clinic this morning. Despite being a healthcare clinic, there were lots of yummy but not so good for you breakfast items like donuts, croissants, coffee cake, pound cake, sausage biscuits, ham biscuits, egg casseroles with ham or sausage, bagels, bacon, well you get the idea. It was very sweet of the nurses and other staff to make us such a spread. They also put together a bake sale downstairs to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. I met Karen P down there to visit a bit, and we each got a carrot cake. It's for a good cause and besides who can't use an extra dessert with Thanksgiving coming up.

Today's photo: Gracie letting me know she loves my Keen boots

No Stopping

We woke up to a light dusting of snow here. Very pretty. I took a photo of our house with the snow, but much of it had already melted in the front yard. Nice to get snow before Thanksgiving; it gets me in the mood for the holidays.

We spent quite a while at the clinic yesterday since my counts were all low. My hemoglobin was 7.9 so they gave me 2 units of packed red blood cells. My platelets were back down to 15,000 so they gave me one bag of platelets as well. My white cell count was down to 0.3, but I just have to wait on the bone marrow to recover for that to come around. That tanking up really helped with my fatigue. I did get to visit with my friend Gail, who works at the DCRI in the same building as the clinic. It was good to catch up, and she made the visit go by much more quickly. That is always nice when I'm there for 5 hours like yesterday.

After the clinic appt, my Mom and I went to Costco to load up on ingredients for some holiday baking. Mostly I needed pecans, dried fruit, eggs, etc. They sure do have alot of stuff, and we only came home with a little bit of stuff each. Well I'm set now for all the pecan pie and sweet potato-pecan casserole that we have to make over the next week.

Mom made fried shrimp from Brian's local catch for dinner last night. It sure was yummy. That is always my birthday dinner at the beach so it felt like my birthday again last night.

Oh yeah, I titled today's entry No Stopping because I was able to run my entire 3 mile loop without having to walk. I even did the route that has the biggest hill (not an Asheville hill, mind you). Anyway, that's progress and most certainly helped along by all the blood I got yesterday.
Photo: Mom cleaning the shrimp

One Week Until Thanksgiving

I am hoping that we will be free of the clinic long enough to go to Asheville for Thanksgiving day. We have a long tradition of hiking with our group there and then eating a big potluck dinner together at someone's house. Susan and Donna are hosting this year. If we end up being seen at the clinic and have to remain in the Triangle, our friends here are having a similar deal and have graciously invited us. No offense to our truly terrific friends here, who we'd love to see, but we are hoping to get to the mtns. We haven't been to Asheville in 3 weeks due to my chemo and treatments here in the clinic, but it would be nice to do ONE THING this year that we usually do. Before I get too ahead of myself, I am quick to remember that it is not on my time, as Susan says. Regardless of where we end up eating dinner, I'm making a sweet potato-pecan casserole and pecan pie, and we will enjoy being with everyone.

I am sitting in my Duke blue recliner waiting to get my labs back. I feel tired, so I bet I need a transfusion of blood and platelets. If so, we'll be here a while waiting for all of that blood and platelets to be cross checked and arrive from the hospital.

Today's workout was a row and push-ups before I came to the clinic. I felt tired but did it anyway. I won't know what to do with myself once my counts come back for good and keep climbing to normal and beyond.

Chicken BBQ

I ate my last sandwich with chicken bbq that my Mom brought from Bessinger's in Charleston. It sure was good with all of that mustardy bbq sauce. I had been craving some chicken bbq which makes me think my body must need the protein to recover from all the chemo I've had. Well, I'm giving it what it wants I guess.

We just got back from the Farmer's Market in Raleigh. I had never been and Mom has wanted to go there everytime she has been up to stay with me. There was quite a range of fresh goods still available what with all the NC mtn apples (we both bought big bags of the Pink Lady variety), collards and other greens, turnips, and more kinds of sweet potatoes than I've ever seen. She bought a big box of those too. After reading the Barbara Kingsolver book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," about her family's experience with growing or buying only local food, I'm feeling all virtuous about getting NC grown stuff. Believe me, after you read that book, you want to go to every farmer's market and buy whatever they have just to reward the farmers for staying in business and bringing the food right to you instead of of some big agri-business deal with shipping contracts from here to Calif or worse yet, Chile or New Zealand. I'd have to quit my job to grow as much food as they did during their year of eating locally, but fortunately, we have not 1 but 2 Farmer's Markets here in Hillsborough not to mention all of the local stuff available at Weaver St Market.

I did a run this morning though it was quite cold. I need to get used to this cold weather and toughen up. It's been a little hard without hair, and the chemo does make one colder natured too. I'll just have to dress in more layers than usual and wear alot of wool. It really helps. I have a little beanie cap that someone knitted and donated to the Bone Marrow clinic. It was made with a lightweight cotton yarn, and I use it to cover my head indoors when I feel a draft. That helps alot too.

Photo: Quig doesn't care much for the cold either and has now take up residence in the bed, all wrapped in covers to stay warm.