Day 73--Happy Boxing Day!

Also known as St. Stephen's Day, Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated (I think...don't quote me on this) in England, Canada, and Australia, and traditionally considered a day to offer gifts to those less fortunate than you. (Whereas, Christmas is traditionally a day when we give gifts to friends and loved ones.) I have no idea why it's called Boxing Day, but since I didn't get around to posting on Christmas, I felt like I needed to give a little nod to Boxing Day. If you prefer, it's also Kwanzaa, according to our calendar, so you can take your pick. The holiday spirit abounds!

We had about as wonderful a Christmas as we could have imagined under the circumstances, particularly since neither one of us knew last summer whether we'd get to have another Christmas together. This is the tiny fake tree we bought at Target...it looks much bigger in the picture than it actually is. In reality, it looks like just the top of a real Christmas tree if it had been lopped off and put in a pot. But it's perfect for our hotel room. I can honestly say that I've never appreciated Christmas cards more than I have this year. And we had some wonderful gifts from friends and family, including a Liberace Christmas record (with a companion copy burned onto a CD) from Carolyn and Garry. (Not sure how to describe our relationship with C&G..."in-law in-laws"? They're our brother-in-law Mark's folks, so they're family, but also good friends.) Anyway, it turns out, miraculously, that Torger had just been regretting earlier in the week that he didn't own any Liberace Christmas music. The round, red package on the left in the picture was from the hotel staff, and guess what it was? A blanket to replace the one that got stolen from our car! We thought that was really nice. And back in the fall, when we'd bought a few books and videos to enjoy during the 100 days, Torger had sneakily stashed some of them away so I forgot all about them. And they show'd up under the tree from Santa! We had a good Christmas Eve visit from Alex and Brandy, and Mom and Rich came by for a few minutes in the afternoon on Christmas Day to have some hot apple cider and wish us a Merry Christmas. They gave us our copy of the latest family calendar, which they assemble each year with pictures from the year before. Torger features prominently in this year's calendar, and we were both kind of taken aback by one picture of him taken in the late summer, when he looked so much sicker than he does now. (At the time, we thought he looked pretty good.) Later, I made a little roast for the two of us for dinner, with biscuits and mashed potatoes and veggies. Then we went over to the 11th floor at the hospital to drop off some treats for the nurses...peanut butter cookies and some toffee...and a Yachtzee game for the floor rec room, since we wound up with a spare. We saw our favorite CNA Brian, who was wearing an elf hat and told us he'd managed to pass his English class. Hooray! (I wrote about our attempts to help him with this class in one of my earlier posts.) Torger wished the whole staff a Merry Christmas, and they seemed really happy to see him, especially looking so well. We also left a little care package for a couple we've met at the hospital. The husband was diagnosed with multiple myeloma just 10 days after Torger, so we've gotten to know them as we've all been cycling through the BMT floor, lab appointments, and clinic days. Unfortunately, treatment for his illness requires not one but TWO stem cell transplants, and he went back in for his second just a couple of weeks ago. Torger and I just can't imagine going through that agonizing process twice in such a short period. It's another reminder of how lucky we've been through this whole process.

Then we came home, listened to a little Liberace, watched a DVD and went to bed. All in all, a great holiday.

Day 7-0--Only 30 More to Go

Dr. Tse called last night to say that Torger's tacrolimus levels were a little high, even though we've been gradually reducing his dosage. (Tacrolimus is the immunosuppressant.) So we got up this morning and went over to the BIC (BMT Infusion Clinic...our regular hangout) for another test. One of the other doctors is watching Torger's labs while Dr. Tse is in Europe, so we don't get to slack off. That temptation to slack is one of our biggest challenges right now, since Torger's been doing so well. Here we are in Denver, where some of our favorite people live, and where there's lots to do and plenty of tempting restaurants. But Torger tires out quickly, has to wear a mask in public, and his digestion is really sensitive, so things like shopping and museums and eating out aren't any fun for him...they actually make him feel bad. We have gotten the OK to get an occasional piece of pizza out, since it's cooked at such high temperatures. But after a couple of attempts, we haven't even been in a hurry to do that again because all the medicines have interfered with his sense of taste, so pizza seems slimy to him. And the one time we went out to look at a bookstore...when it was slow, during the middle of the day, with Torger fully masked...I got so paranoid about all the people coughing and sneezing around us that we cut it short and went home. This isn't a vacation, even though we're staying in a hotel. It's work. And every time we start to lose focus, hearing one sneeze is about the only reminder we need as to why we have to stay so isolated. So for now, a trip over to the nearby Walgreen's to buy bottled water is a big outing for us. It has made us both aware of how much frantic running around we do in our normal lives. It's actually kind of nice to have a good reason to sit still.

Day 69--No Smell of Pine

OK, that's one of my worst rhymes yet. But it applies...we got a 3-foot tall fake Christmas tree for our hotel room, and it doesn't smell like pine. But it looks very cute. (I'm going to try and take a picture of it to post on here tomorrow, so we'll see how that turns out.) Today, Torger had a CT scan and labwork, then we had our last appointment with Dr. Tse for two weeks because he's going to Europe for the holidays. He squeezed us in for an appointment today, then we'll skip next week and see him the following. We'll still have to come in every other day for labwork, but it will be nice not to have the clinic appointments, which tend to stretch into hours because of all the other tests that get scheduled around those sessions. And the latest good news is in: The recent bone marrow biopsy results came back and Torger's cells are now 98-100% donor cells, which is outstanding. And there are no leukemia cells showing up, which is even better.