June 1, 2007

Its day+120 today. I am still not feeling much energy. In fact, my energy level is pretty puny. I just returned from the doctor a couple of hours ago and my blood counts are very similar as before. I feel like I’m treading water at the deep end of the pool and it’s not time to get out yet. The frustrating part is that no one has, or is able to tell me how much longer I have to be there treading water. Of course, treading water is tiring on the old body. I’m just keeping my head above water and trying to smile.

Changing my injected medicine from Procrit to the new one has cured all of the bone pain I was experiencing. I was able to stop taking the Dilaudid for pain. When I stopped the Dilaudid (a man made derivative of morphine) I was pretty depressed for a couple of days. I think the depression was withdrawals from stopping the Dilaudid. I found out later that I should have tapered off slowly. Oh well, another of life’s lessons.

The Prednisone continues to take affect on my muscles. Even at my reduced dose it is affecting muscle strength. I am having a hard time raising my toes and foot on my right leg. It makes tapping my foot to music a left footed task. A physical therapist will be coming to our house on Monday to help me with a regime to retain as muscle as I can. Since my legs are weak, my balance isn’t very steady. That makes it harder to walk, especially on uneven surfaces.

I am wondering if one of you has a reliable treadmill collecting dust that I could borrow for a few weeks. We don’t have the room or desire to have one long term, but having one temporarily would help me exercise my muscles with the aid of having something to hold for balance. I would be less likely to fall.

I needed to get this out but must run because I am on my way back to OHSU for an MRI to assess any possible changes in my spine that could cause my right foot to not work properly. The doctor feels it is totally caused by the effects of Prednisone, but he always very thorough.

Thanks again for your prayers and kind thoughts. Please keep them up.