Life Update

1. Got e-mail from my CRNP at Vanderbilt yesterday. My new bone marrow biopsy is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at 1:00. Everything else is still on schedule as listed in my last blog post.

2. The Vanderbilt social worker is supposed to call me tomorrow to let us know apartment status. If she says we can get the key Wednesday, we may go ahead and take some things up then.

3. Currently I am set up to get platelets Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of this week. I saw my doc and will see him again Thursday. Have to get platelets Thursday because everything is closed Friday for the holiday weekend. Because all blood products that I am now getting are irradiated, I haven't been having any adverse reactions. The good thing about that is that I don't have to take the IV benadryl, so I'm not sleepy all the time.

4. Abbey and Donnie took Picard home with them yesterday evening. My nephew came over and he cleaned out the cage and washed it down out on the deck. Pico was inside on his boing whilst all that was happening. This morning for the first time in 12 years I woke up at home without a bird talking to me. It is strangely quiet here. Not to mention there is a gaping hole in my office where Pico's cage has been ever since we moved into this house in 1998. I think I will get our housekeeper to do some rearranging of the room Tuesday.

5. This is my last week at home for the next few months. All of sudden there seem to be a zillion things I think I should do before I leave. Isn't that always how it is? LOL. I actually feel better than I have since I got home from Italy last summer and started chemo treatments. On Friday afternoon my neutrophils were a whopping 1.5. I am so hoping they will be just a little higher on Monday as 1.56 is considered normal. Mine haven't been normal in over two years! It would be nice to have them up going into the transplant.

6. My diet has to change fairly significantly. Ever since we met with the Vanderbilt transplant dietician on 19 May I have had to eat animal protein every day. This is supposed to help a lot post-transplant with recovery. I realise to some people it might seem strange that this is hard, but I often go a long time without eating animal protein. So I've been eating pork, chicken and such as I haven't done in years. Eggs for breakfast most mornings.

Once I start the transplant chemo I have to stay away from any deli counter food, raw foods outside our home, bulk items from the grocery and things like that. Many raw things will have to be avoided in home, too. No fresh basil. No black pepper. No fresh cheese or soft cheese or bleu cheese. The dietician says the canned aisle in the grocery store is our friend. Also can't use any of the veggie washes as those have grapefruit in them and I can't have anything with grapefruit post-transplant. Ah well. It won't be forever. But it will be strange to be eating canned veggies.

7. Yesterday while my nephew was here he wanted to cook with me. A friend had shared her family recipe for Italian Potato Pie, so to use up things before I go to Nashville we mixed up a big bowl of that. Divided it between three Fiesta square bakers and sent it home with people to cook for dinner. We kept one here to have tonight. My nephew called earlier to tell me how delicious it was and how surprised he was you could make something so good with so few ingredients. I will try to get pics ready and post them after we bake ours for dinner tonight.

One of the ingredients in the potato pie was ham. Based on recommendations from some of my foodie friends, I ordered a Vermont cob smoked ham from Dakin Farms. That's the ham we used in the pie. The bone is now being used to make Red Beans and Rice for dinner tomorrow night. The beans cook in the crockpot, so I will post about them later, also.

8. DD#2 is on her way home from International Thespians in Lincoln, NE. We're under a severe thunderstorm watch, so I hope her flight path is in a different line than the storm.

9. Back before I realised I couldn't garden this year, I ordered about a dozen different heirloom tomato plants. Thankfully Sally, my sister, planted them at her house. Yesterday she brought me the first of the harvest: Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Sun Golds and a couple of others that I don't remember. We're going to have them with dinner tonight!