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April 13, 2007 , Day 178
Friends,
Another busy day/week. I had my doctor appointment today, and it went pretty well. More on that later. This weekend, starting this morning, we have been helping with a local bicycle race called the Omnium. We were providing a light breakfast this morning for a time trial, and tomorrow and Saturday we will be working the registration desk for the races. Yesterday I rode with Menchie on Fiesta Island. It was extremely windy. In fact there was actually a TV News helicopter reporting on the wind while we were riding. It is possible we made the news last night. Anyway, we rode 16 miles over 1:45. I got my top speed up to 21.5mph, and my average speed was up from the previous 12.5 mile ride. I am starting to get some muscles back and have been gaining some weight. I will have to start watching that. We have also been doing some volunteering at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and have been supporting the Cycle team for Tahoe. We finished our woodworking project, and are now using the charging station, which is hanging on our wall over a desk/table.
I have an important announcement! I have been creating a photo album made up of pictures from my treatment. It is now available at the following link:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2095466985&code=27515947&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite.
Please feel to take a look any time. Be aware that some of these pictures are quite graphic and intense. I certainly hope that they are not too disturbing. Also, please feel free to share this album with anyone you think might be interested. I will be adding pictures occasionally, and will let people know in my update if it is changed.
We are getting ready to go to Chicago. My mother's operation was a success, and last I heard, she was doing OK. Since we will be in the Chicago next week, I will not be sending out an update.
I have some thoughts about attitude I wanted to share. Sometimes these things just rattle around in my head so much I have to put them to paper, so to speak, as soon as possible. For many years I have valued a positive attitude. I haven't always had one of course, but I have tried. I have found that a positive attitude certainly helps when you are fighting Leukemia, and I am sure it is true for other cancers and illnesses. I believe that my attitude the first go around was very positive most of the time, but this time, it has been much harder to stay positive. I now think that there is a strong link between attitude and motivation. I think I was much more motivated the first time through all this than this time. The first time, it was kind of an adventure, and I was also highly motivated to get married on the day we planned before I was diagnosed. This time, I had no large life changing events to look forward to, and was extremely worried about financial matters and taking care of my family. You might wonder why family would not be a strong motivator, but if you can, try to imagine how it feels to be a huge disruption in their lives, (my perspective, of course) and have the feeling that they would probably be better off with my life insurance than my life. I am sure they would not agree with that, but I have seen these feelings acted out in too many people to believe it is just me. Many people simply don't try. Another reason they don't is that they feel like they have done what they need to do, and the struggle is too hard. I bordered on that for a while this time, but never really got there all the way. Fortunately for me, a lot of you visited or wrote or otherwise contributed to my motivation and attitude, and the rest of the attitude was sort of a fake it 'til you make it thing. At this point, my life is in a transition stage. I am able to do much more, obviously, than previously, and I have been enjoying serving and riding and working around the house. So my attitude has been pretty good the last month or so, most of the time. Given the power of positive attitude during the healing process, I believe it is important to keep in mind that there has to be some motivation to continue. If you are faced with this problem yourself as a survivor or as a family member, please remember that the key to positive attitude is motivation. Try to find it somewhere.
I have been feeling another strange transition coming on. For the past 4 months or so, I have been looking forward to my doctor visits to make sure that my health was improving. Now I am not looking forward to them so much because I might find out that my health is not improving.
On the medical front, the doctor told me to stop taking the Potassium, so I can cut out 2 pills a day. He said that he might start cutting my immunosuppressant at my next appointment. He is very happy with the state of the GVHD on my shins, and says it is getting better. It looks horrible, but I will take his word for it. He also sees improvement in my tongue, although I can't see any difference. My creatinine is still a little high but coming down. My platelets and HGB dropped a little, but I can still ride. The doctor is a little concerned about something called MCV, which is the size of my red blood cells. It is quite high at 120 cubic micrometers. I will be getting a special lab test next time for more information on that. The doctor cleared me to cook on the BBQ and to do woodwork.
Lab results: Blood counts are all down a bit.
Lab Results |
Blood Cell Type |
Normal Low |
02/27 |
03/06 |
03/20 |
03/27 |
04/13 |
|
| WBC |
4.5 |
3.0 |
3.8 |
3.7 |
4.2 |
4.1 |
| RBC |
4.3 |
2.56 |
2.61 |
2.40 |
2.43 |
2.28 |
| HGB |
13.9 |
9.7 |
10.0 |
9.8 |
9.7 |
9.1 |
| PLT |
130 |
26 |
36 |
45 |
55 |
50 |
Ted and Menchie
tw@wilcoxent.com
mench@wilcoxent.com
www.wilcoxent.com
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