Day + 36 -- a little appetite, gratitudes

For the first time in a week, Doug did not lose any weight! He is holding at 152 and hopefully that will go up soon. He seems to be getting a tiny bit of appetite back. One of our church pastors and his wife came today from BV -- it was great to see them and pray with them.

I left the hospital early today to get some shopping done while Doug is in a safe environment. Got some stuff for him, including a pair of 'skinny' jeans. I had to go to the home health store and there is a Sears right across the street. Since we have very few places to shop for clothes in Buena Vista, I went into the Sears and found a few things at 50% off for me. Fun!

We have things in place to leave tomorrow - Doug will have one more physical therapy session, and we need to review his medicines. I have been very impressed by the therapists at Spalding; we just found out today that Adam, one of the physical therapists, has his doctorate. Doug will resume his physical therapy in Buena Vista next week. Doug has been so fatigued that he can't see his progress -- but he has come a long way in a week. He can walk farther now, especially if he has rest breaks. We have rented a wheel chair for getting him to doctor visits; Doug will walk with the walker as far as he can go, then he can sit in the chair when he tires or gets dizzy and I will push him the rest of the way. That way I don't have to worry that he might fall.

Although this part of our myeloma journey has been very rough, there are people who are so much worse. I was thinking today of some of the things that we have to be grateful for:

• Both of us are retired, so we don't have to worry about going back to work.
• With the help of lots of prayer, I have been able to stay healthy during this stressful time.
• We have good health insurance. So many people don't.
• Doug has had very good medical care, with excellent and caring professionals.
• Even though his heart stopped and he had to be on life support for a while, Doug is expected to fully recover with time. Sometimes I marvel that he is even alive now.
• The transplant doc thinks that the transplant is a success; we'll know more after the next bone marrow biopsy in another two months.
• We have such good support from family and friends who have been praying for us and will be available to help us with whatever we need.
• God has been walking this journey with us and has kept us going in the tough times.

Love to all!