January 15, 2004 DAY #79
Friends,
We are back from San Diego, and back in our little villa. Menchie and I are both starting to get tired of living here, and are anxious to get back to San Diego permanently. I am also getting tired of being sick. Lots of people read my updates and think I am not sick any more. Not true. I am tied to a drawer full of drugs, that have to be taken at a certain time of day. It is a real hassle, and sometimes I just wish I could take a vacation from it. But this is a marathon, and I guess I am starting to "hit the wall". I am getting tired, but I have to keep on, because there is no alternative than to finish the race. My immune system is being suppressed to ensure I don't reject my implant, so I have to be very careful at all times to avoid exposure to germs, viruses, and funguses. All of which could become fatal infections for me. I wear a high quality surgical mask every time I step outside my door. We wash our hands every time we come in before touching anything. I have waterless antibiotic hand cleanser in my car. Every time we get in the car both Menchie and I use that. The immunosuppressants and antibiotics cause all sorts of side effects like high blood pressure, irritability, kidney and liver problems, tremors, fatigue, and visual perturbations. Other drugs used to treat those cause more irritability and moodiness, drowsiness, and edema. I suppose there are times I am not very easy to live with, and my wonderful wife, Menchie, is an angel for putting up with me. Enough of all that. People have been asking me about this kind of stuff, so I just thought I would pass some of this on. The doctor is actually very pleased with my progress.
On a much brighter note, our WEDDING PICTURES, for better or for worse are out on my web site. There is a link from www.wilcoxent.com. Just go there and click on the wedding album link. There are seven albums. Some are big, some are small. I made the slides so that they are about 100K each. This makes them a little slow on dialup, but they look nice. I apologize if this is a problem for any of you. If you want to print a high resolution picture, you can just click on the slide, and you will be able to download the original. Some of these originals are up to 1.5mb, so be aware of that. The size of the original is shown below each slide, for your information. We hope you enjoy these pictures. If you have pictures you want to add to our albums, please send a CD of high resolution pictures, and we will add them when we get a chance.
On the medical front, things are going well. Blood counts all dropped a bit. The doctor was not concerned. They were having problems with my catheter, so maybe the blood was a little diluted by saline. Creatinine was at 1.2, still in the normal range. The doctor cut my dose of prednisone by half a pill again. No problems!
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 11.2 | 8.4 | 8.1 | 5.3 |
| RBC | 4.20 | 4.31 | 4.02 | 4.20 | 3.87 |
| HGB | 13.0 | 14.7 | 13.5 | 13.5 | 12.9 |
| PLT | 130 | 222 | 167 | 145 | 132 |
Have a great weekend! Next Update on Monday!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com