I had a pretty good Thanksgiving and weekend. Thanksgiving day we spent with my mom, 2 of my 3 sisters and one of my nephews. It was really good to see everyone-I hadn't seen my sisters since my dad's passing. Friday was supposed to be spent with Tida's family, but a couple of them had been a little under the weather so we decided we should stay home. We took our food over to Tida's sister's and was able to see her and our nephew; again it had been a couple of months since I'd seen him, so even though it was just a few minutes, it was really good to see him. Saturday we stopped by the other sister's house and was able to see her and her 3 girls. I even shot a few baskets and played a little catch with them. It was so good to see everyone and do some normal things.
I hope to find out when I can go back to work in the next day or two-I'm shooting for Monday the 7th. I'm so ready to get out of the house and get back to normal!

I have so much to be thankful for, so as Thanksgiving nears, I'd like to share a few of the things that are foremost on my mind.
I'm thankful for the love and support of my family, friends, and all of you that support me even though we've never met. I've been placed on prayer lists all over the country, receiving prayer and support from total strangers. I still get emotional every time I think of all the support I have.
I'm thankful for my employment and my co-workers. These are really good people that willingly help others throughout the community. I know they truly care about me and I consider them family.
I'm thankful for all the doctors and nurses that have cared for me this past year. Specifically I'm thankful for the entire staff in Radiation Therapy at St.Lukes Hospital; the nurses in the Infusion unit at St. Lukes Cancer Center; and the nurses that took care of me in the transplant unit at the Siteman Center in St. Louis. We've felt that from the beginning that these professionals weren't just doing their jobs, but that they truly cared about us. Some have even stayed in touch even after I'm no longer under their care. Very special people doing very important work.
I know with all I have to be thankful for, this is a pretty short list, but these are the people that have supported me and helped me through this past year. Thank you all.
Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a pretty good week. I continue to use the treadmill and weights and have increased my workout on both. I ran a couple of errands; used the drive-thru's, but it was still good to get out of the house and do something. I'm definitely getting stronger and feeling pretty normal most of the time.
I'm looking forward to spending time Thanksgiving with my family and Friday with Tida's family. It'll depend on me staying healthy and everyone else being healthy, but I'm really excited about it!

I don't have a lot of news to share. I'm getting stronger daily and have started using the treadmill and doing some light weight work. I even changed out a shower head this week. It's getting to be pretty boring staying at home all the time. I'm ready to get back to work but have to wait for the okay from the doctors; I don't expect to be able to go back anytime before Thanksgiving, so for now I'll just keep trying to get stronger!

Today I had an appointment to get lab work done. Results looked good to us, but we haven’t heard anything from the doctors. While I was there they checked my vitals and found my blood pressure to be really low and my pulse really high. So I got a liter of fluids and had to get an EKG. Everything seems to be okay and both blood pressure and pulse seemed to normalize before I left. The EKG needs to be read by a cardiologist, but there wasn’t anything that alarmed anyone.
A couple of days ago I got a package from the Siteman Center in St. Louis that contained quite a few cards that had arrived after my discharge. So those of you that sent cards, thank you, and I finally did receive them.
I’ve been promising you some pictures for awhile, so I thought I’d finally get them to you.
The first picture shows the room and equipment where I had my stem cells collected back in September. I was the first to get started, but there were five of us getting our cells collected, and there were nurses monitoring each of us, so the room was kind of crowded. The second picture shows me hooked up and the collection in process.

These next pictures are from the transplant stay. The first three show the room I lived in for 2 1/2 weeks, my "closet" and my TV.

The next pics are of the transplant. This first one is the cannister that held my cryogenically frozen stem cells.

This is the warming bath. The stem cells had to go from a frozen state to a pre-determined temperature before they could be transplanted.

The next two are the nurses placing the stem cells into the warming bath.

The transplant process, once the cells were warmed, only took about 30 minutes.

This last picture shows Alicea and J.R. shaving my head. My hair started falling out about 2 weeks after I got there, so I decided to just shave it. Tida's used to it, but I'm still a little surprised every time I look in the mirror! Haven't decided if I'll keep it shaved or not. If it was summer it'd be easier to leave it, but my head gets cold and it's not even winter yet!