I'm Told Patience is a Virtue

Yesterday was a hard day. Not physically. Physically my body is responding well to the treatment. I did not have a pheresis treatment yesterday and my platelet levels continued to hold steady in the 240,000 range which is right where they need to be. All my bruises are finally starting to fade and go away and overall I'm not as tired. I can walk laps around the floor and the hospitals and not feel so tired like I did a week ago. Still no marathon training any time soon.

Yesterday was a hard day emotionally and mentally. I have always been very independent and this has been a very humbling experience. I'm having to rely on people more than ever and not only have they been there, it was suport without question. My mom flew home yesterday which was really hard because she has been here from the beginning and having her here made me not feel so alone. She was also able to explain all the medical mumbo jumbo the doctors have been throwing at me so I could actually understand what was going on. I enjoyed her company and will miss having her here for the rest of this journey.

Dealing with work is always going to be mentally and emotionally stressful. It is a fact that work makes my blood pressure go up significantly. While working on a webpage and hooked up to pheresis, Cindy could tell when I was having issues or reading an aggrivating email because my blood pressure would rise. I talked to my boss and my HR Director yesterday about working part time from home and it was decided that I will go on Intermittent FMLA. This will allow me to work from home and still receive a paycheck for the next month, since I also found out that I do not have short term disability. I was afraid the doctor was not going to be as generous to my plight, but as always he was very understanding and agreed that I would do okay working from home starting next week, no more then 20-25 hours.

Coming out of this the hardest part is going to be slowing down, in every aspect of my life. I have always been highly active and with high activity comes high stress. If I don't slow down, my body won't get better, and then I could wind back up in the hospital with a relapse. I'll get a good dose of slow down over the next two weeks while I'm on home rest.

A comfort through this entire process has been the doctors and nurses at UAB. They are truly wonderful people and have been uplifting the entire time I have been here. When we moved to Birmingham being near a world class hospital was not on my list of musts, but I lucked out. I can never thank them enough for everything they have done and for getting me through this episode in my life.

On one of my walks yesterday I went to the other side of the floor where I was the first night they brought me into the hospital. The nurse that attended to me that night was on the floor and I stopped to say hello. She couldn't believe I was still there, but was glad to see that I was doing much better. After my mom left my rounding nurse came in and talked with me for a while and we compared dog stories and pictures. Nothing makes you feel better than gloating and sharing pictures of your dogs.

Jason brought me China Moon, comfort Wonton Soup, last night to brighten my day and my friend Liz stopped by on her way home from the gym to say hi. She has decided that A) the vitamins they are giving me have made my hair grow out of control and it must be trimmed immediately :) (it's nice when your hair stylist is also your friend and makes hospital calls) and B) that this whole ordeal should be capped off with an in hospital photo shoot. Not sure how I feel about the latter, but will post the pictures regardless.