Check-up Four
It would appear that I continue to do quite well, according to my transplant coordinator. My incision is healing very nicely, I’ve lost fifteen pounds of superfluous water weight since last Tuesday, and all my bloodwork from last week looks good. I get to skip a check-up next week (though I still need to get bloodwork drawn), which should make life a little easier.
The pressing question for me at the moment is: If I’m doing so well, why is five pounds so heavy? I have a couple of light handweights that I’ve pulled out of mothballs to do some easy exercising with. The catch is, they aren’t so light. What I used to be able to throw around with impunity I now can’t even do ten legal curls with. I knew I’d had a fair amount of muscle wasting, but this is ridiculous. It’s time to start getting serious about building myself back up. There’s still a lot I can’t do yet, since I’m forbidden to lift anything that weighs more than 15 pounds for a few months yet. Still, I don’t see that as a major problem, since I’m currently having trouble with a third of that amount.
The level of my anti-rejection drug has been lowered slightly, from 10 mgs twice a day to 9 mgs twice a day. I don’t know if the change is significant enough to make any kind of impact on the intention tremors I’ve been getting, but at least we’re moving in the right direction now. I learned today that the headaches and dry cough I’ve been troubled with the past week may well be due to the anti-rejection drug as well. Ironic how something so good for me is so bad for me.
My morning glory vines are now about a third of the way up the fencing, and started to bloom yesterday. Yesterday I had one magenta colored flower, and today one blue and two purple flowers. There were buds aplenty on the vines today, so with any luck I’ll get a decent picture of the vines tomorrow to show off in an entry. I’ll also need to post pictures of the gardens my sisters planted for me while I was in the hospital. Great bursts of color and mayhem predominate, just as I’d hoped to plant myself.
People are already starting to talk about when I go back to work. To be honest, I have no intention of going back to work this summer, and if I can put it off until the end of November I’ll do so. I think my new liver and I are going to need a nice, long honeymoon to get acquainted. I want this “marriage” to work, so I’m taking all the time I can legally get. Maybe I’ll change my tune when I start feeling really good, and perhaps start getting bored, but then again, I got no vacation this year at all (twelve day hospital stays do not count) so this will be my only chance to take one.
The logistics of actually getting away for a weekend right now are formidible. I’d give a great deal to get away to somewhere … anywhere … for a long weekend, but between the drugs and having to stay close to my hospital and my current lack of stamina, I have no idea what I could manage. It’s probably too early to be thinking about that anyhow, but then again, it’s probably a good sign that I am thinking about it.
Meanwhile, I have started on one of the handful of projects I had set aside in anticipation of being stuck home in recuperation mode. My father left a legacy of several hundred letters written home to his parents and friends during World War II, as well as keepsakes such as paper money and coins from the war era from the Pacific theatre, and a treasure trove of photographs. I am in the process of transcribing, scanning, and building a site to chronicle those items. The earliest of them was sixty years old this June, the sixtieth anniversary of my father’s graduation from college. It’s strange to hold these items in my hand, knowing that my father (who could never have been justly accused of being a sentimentalist) saved them for all those decades until he died. At the same time, I’m finding it a good way to center myself, and reconnect with a man dead for thirteen years.
I often wonder what he would have made of this whole liver transplant thing.
I like your attitude about taking it easy with work. Be sure not to overdue it with getting back into shape, either. Not that you need me to tell you to listen to your doctor. 🙂
Be well.
I think you are on the right track with waiting to go back to work. Hard to believe, but November will come soon enough.
The letters and memobilia (SP?) that your dad left sounds very intriguing. That would be fun to go through. I love stuff like that!
I am so glad to hear you are getting better.
Thank you so much for all your kind words in my diary today. I really needed a boost after yesterday.
I think you are right on about taking things slowly. Your body has been through a lot in the last year, it could use the rest. Since the five pound weights are a bit too heavy for now, might I suggest cans of soup, or even tomato paste? Water bottles are good, too, and they have the bonus of being adjustable by just pouring (or drinking) some.
As for making a website for your father’s memorabilia, what a great idea. I don’t know how many family members there are, but transcribing the letters and putting them on a CD might be a much appreciated gift. You could even take the disk to Kinko’s and have it printed out and bound into a book. Hey, that might be a thoughtful, and affordable Christmas gift for your sisters. Perhaps the CDs for aunts, uncles, and cousins, and the books for your sisters? I know that I’m months early, but this is a long term project. Just an idea.
Love,
~Cali
It sounds like you’re feeling OK, despite the muscle loss. Fear not, muscles are probably the easiest thing to rebuild on the body. I’m not sure who’s talking about going back to work, but pushing it is guaranteed to undo a lot of good, so resist, my dear.
You could probably write a book with your dad’s material. It’s already half written, actually. Have you ever fancied yourself an author?
about that storm. last I saw it, it was headed up the east coast. It was soaking Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. I’m not sure where it’s at now. Next one that comes thru here i’ll be sure to tell it to leave you alone, ok? *L*
I am so glad to hear that your "marriage" is working out so far, and you do deserve a honeymoon with it. If you can afford it, I would suggest taking as long as you need. Your health is more important.
It really touched my heart while reading about your father and his ‘things’.
I thought my father was becoming a sentimentalist when he showed me some coins that belonged to his father. They were 1900. He had told me that he wanted them passed down to the grandkids and greatgrandkids. When he passed away, I went looking for those coins. To my surprise, I found out that he had sold them.
I was crushed.
But, I really should not have been surprised, he loved playing the horses. 🙁
Thanks for a new idea,
I am going to write about it.
Honey