Latest Checkup

Two weeks ago I had my monthly checkup with the Salina oncologist. There were not a lot of the exclamations that accompanied the last two monthly checks. The results seem to have leveled in the complete remission stage for which we are offering abundant praise to God. He is also interested in any anomalies in my general health so I shared a couple with him. I have had a cough since early March that would nearly go away, get worse and then repeat the cycle on a monthly basis. To this he said let him know if there is a fever. I also have a ache in my right side and back that also waxes and wanes in intensity. To this he first gives me a look that seem to imply A-G-E. Then he said call if I go up a flight of stairs and am out of breath. I have had neither. It has been hard to get a grasp on this age thing. Two years ago Joshua and I were working two jobs that added up to over 50 hours a week of manual labor. We also rode our bikes to work nearly everyday which was 6 miles one way. When it comes to bike riding it is about the only area that I was still superior to Joshua. I would let him lead so that I wouldn't leave him too far behind. Last summer was the bone marrow transplant. I made an acquaintance with a man who had a BMT about 8 years ago. He said that he didn't feel completely normal until one or two years later. I, of course, thought I would beat that schedule. Well I'm approaching a year later in August and I feel 60%-90% normal depending on the day. The quandary is that I am aging and I wonder is what would be normal from two years ago. I siding with the notion that the change is still to precipitous and that I have still some more strength to gain. Now Joshua lets me lead on the bike so that he doesn't leave me behind. I am only working a 15 hours a week and I sometimes am wiped out after one shift. Velda has declared that this summer will be as low an activity summer as possible so that I can focus on recovering and being ready for the next school year. Last year I started teaching on December 9th and hardly missed a day until the end of the year. After my last day I nearly slept the entire Memorial Day weekend and was barely able to move. I must have been teaching on fumes and adrenalin. I have slowly worked back to my present energy level and have recently added mowing the lawn to my activities. We are not gardening this year giving the ground its sabbatical rest. This helps keep me idle. We are working on flowers and simple landscaping around the house (plans developed for us by Dan Fiorillo) but that really is mostly done by the girls. Joshua is not motivated on working on things that cannot be eaten. I am doing a lot reading and also working on the next school year. We are giving all high school students and teachers chomebooks so I am working on making my class as paperless as possible. My kidneys are still not in the normal range so I appreciate prayer for those two little guys. Thank you.