T+73 Less than four

BOX SCORE	7/15/2024
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	11.4	13-17	v
Platelets	147	140-375	v
ANC	4870	1800-8300	v

The number of leaves on a less than lucky cloverleaf. The number of baseballs you can put in your mouth. The number of times I have broken 100 on the golf course. The number of weeks until we return home. What do all of these things have in common? They are all less than four. That's right! Today is day T+73, which means we are within 27 days of finishing my post transplant care at OHSU. Our expected return to Dallas, should be August 17th. 

One of my biggest fears of the transplant process was that I would not tolerate being away from home for more than 15 weeks. That's almost four months. I was concerned about our home being untended for that long. No worries, we have the world's best neighbors. Practically everyone has pitched in one way or another. They have taken care of our roses and blueberries. They have planted in our raised garden beds, which makes it look as if someone lives in the place. They have tended to our trash bins, making sure they were put out on pickup days. (We didn't stop the trash service, because it is fairly cheap, and everyone in the neighborhood occasionally runs out of space in their bins.) They have put fresh batteries in some of the control valves in our irrigation system. They have picked up our mail (that's a whole other story). 

They have even helped with cleanup, when our daughter Tara stayed at our house one weekend and followed her nose, only to find out that terrible odor was from some things rotting in the fridge, which had stopped running. Yeah, I know, we should not have left anything in there, but my thinking was that we installed an automatic standby generator, so if the power went out, the fridge would only be off for a minute or two. I didn't realize that the refrigerator, instead of having a dedicated electrical circuit, is actually on one of the kitchen outlet circuits that includes a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) device. When the power went out, both the generator and the GFCI worked as they should. The only problem was that a GFCI must be manually reset. Looks like I will have a little wiring project when I get home. 

Another concern I had was security of the premises. As a result, I installed surveillance cameras around the perimeter of the house. Little did I know how reliable they would become...boy are they reliable...boy do I wish they wouldn't warn me about every insect that flies by and every car that backs out of a driveway half a block away. I now feel very comfortable that no one will be able to enter our home without becoming a Hollywood star. 

I have spent a total of 118 days in the hospital over the past 3+ years. That sounds awful, but it has been tolerable because it was broken up into chunks over the course of nine different visits. I have made some dear friends among the nursing staffs and the hematology/oncology staffs. Still, the thought of being away for home for four months seemed daunting. 

But now we have fewer than four weeks to go before we return home to the bed that doesn't hurt my back and my recliner with the great lumbar support and the neighbors to whom we owe such a huge debt of gratitude. Fortunately, we have a brand new patio that I have been looking forward to using but have been unable to do so. Seems like a good place for a barbecue to celebrate our homecoming as well as our amazing neighbors. 

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (Romans 15:2)

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (1 Corinthians 10:24)

 As of today, I am scheduled for six more days of clinic visits at various OHSU facilities. They will include three weekly visits for blood draw, a bone marrow biopsy to check on the progress of maturation of my new immune system, a lung function test, and a few concomitant visits with Dr. Meyers, during which I expect we will be advised what the next steps are. 

In the meantime, we are comfy in our Hobbit Hole of a basement apartment, counting our blessings. It will take more than four weeks for us to count them all.