Day 115--Starting PT

Torger is finishing up his last set of appointments before we move home...he had another skin biopsy on Wednesday and will meet with an endocrinologist next week. He'll also have to have some bone density scans. But today is the exciting one because this is his first appointment with a physical therapist. As I've mentioned before, he's pretty deconditioned after the transplant and several months of fairly limited activity. The whole time he was in the hospital, he'd get himself out of bed to do leg lifts and laps around the floor, but the post-transplant fatigue is harder to fight...especially when it's too cold or windy to walk outside. (He's also supposed to avoid much sun.) He can't be in the hotel's workout room when other people besides me are in there exercising, so you can see the problem. Walking the hotel halls and carrying the clothes basket down to the laundry room is a workout these days, and he finds it hurts when he leans on one elbow for too long because there's just no muscle there. So this appointment signals the real start of getting back into a more normal level of activity.

The Love Spud

When I was grocery shopping recently, I found this potato, which Torger named The Love Spud. Since Valentine's Day is just over a week away, I wanted to share it with all of you so that you, too, might share in the Valentine's spirit. I like how the little, crooked line on the righthand side looks like its potato heart is breaking just a wee bit. I actually gave it my sister, Marcy, after I took this picture, and her 1 year old promptly took a bite out of it. Either that is a warning to all her future boyfriends, or a sign that this younger generation has no sense of romance!

Day 112--Still in the Hotel

Both my cell phone and my secure connection to my work computer seem not to be working at the moment, but at least I can update the blog! We've had a pretty hectic week trying to get things ready to move back home. Even though we have permission to leave the hotel three days from now, we'll probably be here one more week beyond this one as we try to finish up our great last-minute remodeling escapade at the house. As always with this kind of stuff, it's taking twice as long and causing twice as many headaches as originally planned, but we actually planned for that, so we're doing OK. Thanks to Alex, Brandy, Mark, Marcy, and Mom for spending the day at the house Saturday sorting through stuff, taking down blinds, and cleaning up sawdust left from refinishing the bedroom floor. I can't even express what a huge help they've been in this whole process. Torger really, really hates the fact that he can't help, but that's kind of the point of this whole thing. He was on the computer last night reading about aspergillus and brain fungus in AML patients, and everything he read started freaking him out just a little bit more. There was a whole article about how pillows are a problem, which we already knew...but somehow seeing it in writing can make it seem more daunting. We both agreed he probably shouldn't ready that stuff for awhile. He did have a really interesting dream the other night. Somehow, Rod Blagojevich was hanging around him in his dream, and Torger just couldn't shake him. At one point, Blago scalded himself with some water and dream-Torger was trying to get him to put something cool on the burn, and Blagojevich wouldn't listen but also wouldn't stop complaining about it! Then when dream-Torger would talk to other people, Blagojevich would pop up and start accusing them of talking about him. It was a pretty funny dream, actually, but Torger was just annoyed when he woke up.

Day 107--One More Week in Denver

We had a good meeting with Dr. Tse yesterday, and he gave us the official OK to move home at the end of next week. We discussed a number of potential concerns for the future, including infection, brain fungus, and the possibility that the leukemia could come back even with his new cells. But mostly, Dr. Tse said he wants Torger to remain very careful over the next three months so that he can get back as quickly as possible to leading a relatively normal life. (This is Torger, after all, so "normal" is relative.) After a few more appointments, including a meeting with an endocrinologist, some bone density tests, and another skin biopsy, Torger should be done with tests for a little while. The results from his tests last week seemed to all be positive...including the eye exam, where their primary interest was to make sure Torger was able to make enough tears. Hydration is actually a continual challenge right now. He's been having some edema (puffiness) in his ankles, and Dr. Tse chalked it up to not enough fluid and not enough exercise. So we got him doing some more walking yesterday, but drinking his required daily gallon of fluid is tougher. For the next three months, he's just got to approach "hydrating" as his job.

Day 104--Kicking Off the War

This weekend, we really launched our War Against Dust in a big way. Torger and I made our first trip back to Fort Collins on Saturday, which was actually kind of strange. By the time we eventually move home, we'll have been living away for almost a third of a year. And even though the time has zipped by, on Saturday it still felt like we'd been gone a long time. We got Torger ensconced over at Mom's house away from the activity, and then I went over to our place. Alex and Brandy came up from Denver, and together with Mom and me, we got all the furniture and junk moved out of the office and finished the actually pretty hellish job of scraping off all the old wallpaper. We got new windows ordered for the office and bedroom, to replace the original 1949 windows that not only let in a lot of cold and dust but also get moldy in wet weather. And we gave away our two big Persian rugs, which we both love but which, even after cleaning, are likely to harbor dust and cat dander. Mom found a painter who will be coming in mid-week, and later in the week, a guy will be coming in to pull out the bedroom carpet and refinish the wood floor. Our new HEPA-filtered vacuum has arrived, and boy, are we going to need it. Our house is probably as clean lately as it's ever been, but dust still accumulates in unexpected and hidden places...and we really do have a lot of books, which are big dust collectors. We are going to go up again Thursday and Saturday to coordinate some of the work and so I can get busy sorting and purging some of the excess stuff. Brandy also noticed that we really need to get rid of our accordion blinds because of the dust and the complete inability to really keep them clean. So that will be another project for next weekend. Driving back to Denver Saturday night, we both had the odd and comforting feeling of coming home as we approached the hotel. For the next two weeks anyway, it will be home.

One Milestone Reached--Still More to Go

To elaborate on my celebratory post from this morning...Torger has reached Day 100 and, despite the grim prognoses before his transplant, he's still very much alive. Hooray! Now we're gearing up for the next 100 days. Early on, we were told that if Torger made it past this first milestone, he'd have about a 50-50 chance of making it through the first year. So that's where we are now, which is much, much better than where we've been. We just have to keep working , and, as Torger's dad, Jon, said this morning, Torger will pretty much just have to resign himself for the next three months to wearing his duck-billed mask until he just about reaches...but doesn't quite cross...the point of insanity.

The milestone is a little anticlimactic, though, because it's now looking like we won't be able to move out of the hotel until about February 4 because of both the work that needs to get done on our house in Fort Collins and the appointments Torger has to have at the hospital before they let him leave Denver. Dr. Tse is actually out of town this week, but in his absence he has scheduled Torger for a long list of tests and exams that will determine whether we can go home in the near future. We just got back from the dental clinic, where he had a detailed dental exam and X-rays. (While I was waiting, I went into the little computer resource room they have set up for patients and visitors in the waiting area, hoping to do some work or at least update the blog. Instead, I had to laugh when I saw the sign in the room warning that the bank of computers is only to be used to access dental-related websites. No WONDER I was the only person in there! I can understand restricting the use of one or two computers, since it's for patients in a dental clinic after all. But six?? It just seems like they're anticipating a whole lot more interest in dental-related websites than is probably realistic. And I'm a fan of teeth!)

Tomorrow, we've got the next round of exams, including a CT scan, eye exam, pulmonary function test, and the usual labwork. We're still trying to schedule him for another set of skin biopsies, which Torger is dreading. But so far, all the tests he's taken look really good, and Dr. Tse has even reduced Torger's fluid infusion so now we'll have two days off a week from "doing the drip" at home. The reduction means Torger will be required to up his fluid intake to at least a gallon a day, but it's worth it to get a little bit of freedom from the IV. This is the kind of milestone that is really meaningful for us right now.

DAY 100!

Yay!!!