Day 122--Almost Through

Tonight is our last night in the hotel...at least, in this hotel. We're moving back to Fort Collins in the morning but will need to stay in a hotel up there for a few days while I finish reassembling our house. In the last few weeks--and with a considerable amount of help from family--we successfully got the carpet pulled up, refinished the wood floor in the bedroom, pulled off the grungy wallpaper in the office, repainted the office and the bedroom, got new windows installed in both, and had the exterminators in to seek and destroy any wayward mice . We've given away our rugs and a whole bunch of books--which in our house barely made a dent, but nevertheless eliminates the one open bookshelf in the bedroom with dust-collecting potential. We now have our new, HEPA-filter vacuum, which I still have to figure out how to use, and the new blinds are ordered and should be installed next week. We also have a new couch ordered, and we'll just have to throw a sheet over the old one for a couple of months until it arrives. All of this is wonderful, but right now, we have random books and furniture all over the house and sawdust from the floor still lingering in corners and, actually, right out in the open. So we'll be tackling that tomorrow, with much help from kind-hearted folk. And speaking of kind-hearted folk, Sandy (the hotel manager) and Celeste (the sales manager) came by our hotel room to say goodbye this afternoon. They gave us each a fancy hotel bathrobe and a box of chocolates, and they also said that they'll give us the staff rate any time we want to stay here in the future. That just about guarantees we'll spend some nights back here when we have to come down for any early-morning appointments. We've actually grown really attached to the hotel staff, from Miss Jean who runs the kitchen and makes really amazing muffins to the "tiny tornado" housekeeper Angelica, to Homero the maintenance guy, to Kelvin, Alejandra, Derrick, and Aaron at the front desk. I feel like I've actually gotten to know some of them a little bit, and I'll miss seeing them every day. (Of course, I've invited all of them to a CSU basketball or volleyball game next time they decide to enjoy their "staff rates" at any of the Hilton-family hotels in Fort Collins.) When we check out in the morning, we'll have been here exactly 4 months and a day--a third of the year. Anyway, better stop typing now so I can go finish packing.

Day 117--Who Was That Masked Man?

I actually took this about a week ago after Torger's eye exam, while we were waiting for his CT scan. His eyes were dilated, so he had to wear the weird new optometrist's glasses that don't have arms but just stick right onto your face. Together with his bald head and duck-billed mask for going out in public, he had a good alien thing going.

Physical therapy went well on Friday, although Torger was amazed at how much it tired him out. They had him do 5-7 minutes on the treadmill at about 2 mph, followed by 3 minutes of cool-down. Then he did some leg and arm lifts with the giant rubber bands. He did the treadmill again at the hotel this morning (after we wiped it down carefully). He'll stick with the 5-7 minutes this week and then bump it up by 5 minutes a week. Rich, the therapist, wants him to come in one more time before we go home, and then about once a month after that. (Sorry this picture is a little blurry...I took it with my Blackberry.)

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.