Big Candy, Big Britches

Jeff believes that his candy dish is getting bigger.  He is, of course, referring to the analogy of the candy dish as the fixed amount of energy he is given each day that can be consumed all at once or doled out carefully over the course of the day.  In fact, most days he seems to be able to accomplish more and last longer. 

Last night he proudly suggested that we list all the things he fixed or made in the last couple of days:  the dryer, the gates in our yard that weren’t closing very well, the pond pump and, grandest of all, he made a very regal throne for Vacation Bible School (a whole-day project – and can you believe we forgot to take a picture of it before we delivered it to church this morning?).

Of course, all these projects at home are in addition to the nearly full-time work he is doing, most recently kitchen renovations at Judy and Mark’s house - with some help from the homeowners.

And last weekend we even went out to see a show at Langhorne Players.  And Jeff managed to stay awake for the whole show. 

All this increased activity has resulted in just enough weight loss for Jeff’s britches to be a little droopy, extra roomy.  Now I can say, “I told you so.”  It wasn’t too long ago that he decided his old body had fully returned and his post-transplant skinny wardrobe could be donated.  I advised holding onto the few things we had bought for him but he saw no reason to do that. 

When Friday’s lab results were posted online, I looked at them and used the graphing function on Penn’s website to compare the results with those from before this round of GVHD.  I told Jeff, “In my unprofessional opinion, it looks as if your blood counts are pretty good and your liver function is improved but not back to where it had been.  I suspect they’ll keep you at this dose of Cellcept awhile longer.  Don’t expect a phone call from Dr. Porter’s office with any new instructions.” 

Jeff agreed, “Well, my next appointment is in about a month.  We’ll see then.”

We had a very nice Father’s Day cook-out here today with our little Rosie and her parents.  Life is good.   

Please pray for continued improvement of Jeff’s liver and also for a young father, Andy, a neighbor of a church friend, who is at Day 0 plus 9.  His two young children did not have their daddy at home this Father’s Day.