Feeling Better Every Day

The last several days have been pretty good, overall. My energy levels and strength continue to improve, and I'm eating better, too.

Yesterday, though, was a weird "off day." I had a clinic appointment at 8:30, which meant that Noelle couldn't take me. That's right when she's taking the kids to school. My brother Jeff was able to drive me to the hospital, as he works downtown. But he has to be at his office by 8:00, so he picked me up at 7:15 and got me to the clinic around 7:45. I woke up a couple hours before normal, which may have set things off. As I got out of Jeff's car at the hospital, I started to feel a little queasy. I checked into the clinic and had blood drawn for lab work. After that, I was ushered into Room 1 to wait for the nurse to change the dressing on my central line. I began to take my morning meds, and couldn't finish. My queasiness turned into full-fledged NAUSEA. I ran down the hall and made it to the clinic bathroom just in time to say a prayer to the porcelain god. Up came my breakfast and the pills I had just taken. A couple hours later, as I was meeting with Dr. Miller, my pain specialist for my neuropathy, I had another wave of nausea hit me and had to excuse myself and run to the bathroom to throw up again. Then, at dinner last night, I ate a baked potato and on my last bite the nausea hit me again. Back to the bathroom. All day, the only things I was able to eat and keep down were a couple cans of Sprite, a little rice and an apple without the peel. Gratefully, I'm right back to normal today.

What have I been doing with my time? Well, not working every day does give me some time I'm not used to having. I continue to walk a mile or more each day, weather permitting. I've finished reading the biography of Thomas S. Monson and the 9th and final volume of The Work and the Glory. Now I'm reading The Help. Noelle and I watched the movie before I went into the hospital, and I decided I wanted to read the book. I'm just a few chapters in, and it's really well written. I'm reading the scriptures more than I'm used to doing, which has been a lot of fun. I also have some goals with my music. The Church allows composers and arrangers of music to submit their music for consideration to be included in an issue of the Ensign (the Church's monthly magazine for adults) or to be put on their music website. It's been nearly 30 years since the Church released a new edition of the hymn book used in Church meetings. I would imagine that some of the best that have been submitted over the last several years will be included in the next edition. The annual deadline for submission is March 31st. I submitted the hymn I wrote on my mission: The Time is Now. Who knows? Maybe It'll be selected for something. Later this year, I also plan to publish a lot of the arrangements I've done over the years. I've got plenty of time to work on new arrangements, too.

My lab results all looked good yesterday. I just need to work on getting and staying healthy and strong. Rachael, my care coordinator, says that we're still waiting for blood samples from the first several potential donors. Finding a donor may take a while, so I have some time to get stronger and figure out how to eat more than I'm eating now.

Nothing else of real interest to report for now. I'm getting really excited for the visits of "The Guys" from high school (Mike Myatt, Steve Gutteridge, Tim Thompson and John Lang) this weekend, and my older sister, Christy, next week. I'm glad I'm feeling well so I can enjoy their visits.