March 15, 2007

Today is day+42 and I’m progressing slowly, but in the right direction. Yesterday I actually left the house and walked through Costco with Barbara. I was glad we had a cart because it doubled as a walker to help hold me up at the end. I made it the whole way around the store. Amazing how therapeutic a walk in Costco can be.

The doctors would not be happy because of my being around the public. I carefully stayed away from people and wore my special mask. My muscle strength is returning slowly. Now I can walk up our stairs without much help by using my arms. I’m slowly adding different foods and my GI tract is doing great so far.

I received a letter from my donor at my last lab appointment. My Donor and I will not be able to find out names or locations for at least 1 year from the transplant. Until then, I send emails to my donor through the unrelated donor coordinator at OHSU. She censors it and forwards the emails to the donor registry where my donor registered. They censor it and send it to my donor. One that thing I noticed in the letter is that my donor wrote mum and dad, not mom and dad. I suspect that she is British, but probably won’t find out until a year.

Together we are making daily progress. I thank you for your prayers.