Welcome to my new WordPress, Bluehost hosted, Riding the Wave Blog. I hope you like it and if you went to my old one on blogger and found yourself redirected here, I’m happy you found me! Much thanks goes to my friend and former co-worker, Bari Mitchell, at the University of Maryland. She spent time with me on the phone to discuss my options and help me make decisions and get everything migrated over. She has continued to help me with those little nagging issues of learning a new “engine” so to speak.
So I hope you like my new cyber digs and that you will bookmark the new blog in place of the old one and leave me words of encouragement of things you like. It will be evolving as I learn how to use “plugins”, “widgets”, “tags”, “categories” and the like.
My friend Elyse, also a former co-worker and still a very dear friend, will be giving me edits from time to time, so I will constantly be tweaking old posts here and there.
So for those who want to know about Dave… He is doing remarkably well. His body has been to hell and back and he’s still battling a great deal of fatigue and some edema (water retention from the chemo maintenance drugs he’s on – Revlimid everyday and Velcade once a week). His flexibility and strength is in shreds, but his attitude and outlook are better than before. Spiritually and Mentally he is like the bionic man in that regard and quite frankly, its a joy for us both. We laugh more and he laughs loud and unrestrained. I can’t tell you in words available in our language how incredibly amazed and proud I am of him. He has come through this ordeal to where we are now with tremendous courage and resolve. Those of you who know us well, know that this wasn’t how it started, not by a long shot. He was scared and in pain and a whole host of other adjectives you can think of and imagine, too numerous to write about. But you get the idea. Two stem cell transplants later he is in recovery mode. He worked full time through his ordeal with lots of needed down time here and there. The support he (and I) received from strangers, family, friends, co-workers and colleagues, neighbors, medical personnel, insurance representatives, human resources at his company and hospital social workers, made it all possible. We simply couldn’t have done this nearly as well or with such success without each and every one of you. For fear of forgetting someone, you know who you are and we thank you.
Currently, my dear friends Judi & Russell’s daughter, Hetta, is staying with us for the summer. As luck would have it, she is a highly trained, certified Yoga Instructor from the famous Yoga Works. In lieu of the rent she wanted to pay me, I asked her to instead work with Dave to help him get his flexibility and strength back. Dave did a “happy” loud G-R-O-A-N on the phone when I told him “Guess what? You are going to have your very own personal trainer living in the house this summer!” hahaha So Hett works with Dave every night after dinner on stretching his beat up and tattered body and he is noticing improvements and less and less spasms in his back in the middle of his work day. Of course the fact that I get to get off the NAG WAGON makes me feel that I should be paying her! As it is priceless.
The other day on our weekend walk to a local Starbucks with our beautiful dog Kip, he said, “Are you walking slow or am I walking fast?” Holy Cannoli Batman! Dave was walking FAST! Wowsa, that was a big deal. Very cool.
We still have much to conquer on the road ahead, but we are really enjoying where we are now and look forward to each and every day being better than the last. He is in a good position to be one of the lucky ones in this disease and the numbers coming out of Little Rock (where he was treated) are showing tremendous promise in his disease category. He loves his job, he sleeps through the night, he’s eating good food, he’s doing his Baseball Fantasy with his friends, he talks to the kids regularly, and when he needs to take a nose dive and rest, he does. Whatever needs getting done isn’t going anywhere and will be there when he’s ready.
Side effects from chemotherapy are always challenging. Each time you address one thing, a new thing gets created. Its good to go to LR (Little Rock) every few months or so and consult with our doctors there on how to improve these things without adding more chemicals to the mix. They are amazingly sensitive to his quality of life being improved.
I’ve been involved with a few Myeloma related endeavors that have been enjoyable and I’ll probably write more about that later on. Suffice to say, I don’t want to become consumed with all things Myeloma, so these things that have been presented to me are just PERFECT and exactly what I ordered up. A way to give back, meeting old & new Myeloma Buddies, and at the same time, not be living it everyday. I’ve had quite enough of that thank you very much! I’m very excited about it all.
I’m still not working, or even looking for work yet, much to Dave’s annoyance. This thing took its toll on me. When we were in the thick of it, I was in high gear, in motion, moving everything toward a goal. When it was over, I felt almost as ravaged as Dave, but in a completely different way. I have asked him for some patience and I have been traveling, visiting friends I’ve missed, the children, connecting with old friends from my childhood, high school and even college buddies. I’m beginning to feel my old self again, but like Dave, I need to get my body back in shape too! So YOGA WOMAN HETTA has been politely and gently dragging me to the Yoga Room in Elk Grove and its been just fabulous, except that I realize just how bad it is!
The kids are flourishing and happy, so of course I’m happy.
Come back soon and come often!
Lori
