February 13, 2010 10:45 PM 8 days to go

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's tomorrow, I know, but I just wanted to be among the first to offer the salutation. To celebrate, tomorrow we're going out to breakfast with my mother-in-law. That's certainly a lot better than last year when I was in the hospital awaiting my bone marrow transplant.

It was a somewhat quiet day - just working on my bathroom. As I said before, I've got a long way to go. When you have to spend the time to strip out yellowed caulking compound that some idiot used instead of grout to finish between tiles - you have a lot of work in front of you.

Time marches on and I have noticed that I am beginning to close in on 500 postings. I nevefr thought that that would be the case. I always thought that I would run out of anything that might be interest to people long before then. Actually, I probably have, but people are too kind to let me know. So, I guess that I will continue to bore you to death for a little while longer, anyway.

I received the next mailing in the series dedicated to tracking your recovery period. Today's edition was for the 12 to 18 month period. It's interesting to note that they still bring up depression and a full list of graft vs host side effects that continue to plague people. One other item mentioned the ever present worry of having the disease come back. I certainly don't want that to happen to me, but I can't worry about things that I have no control over. If it comes back, I'll deal with it then. Otherwise, I'm going to live as normal a life as I possibly can.

Comments were also mentioned about how we are not the same people that we were before. There is still some concern about crowds, infections, slowly integrating yourself back to work, etc. But, more importantly, you now tend to look at life a little differently.

But, I have been so fortunate. Other than the three hospital stints and the forced house arrest, I have been fine. Calling this period a "vacation" is not really the right choice of words. Maybe it's more like I've taken a hiatus from everyday living for lo these past 16 months.

Well, tomorrow marks my last Sunday of not going to church.

Thank God that's come to an end...

Bob