It has been so long since our last
blog entry that we thought we’d better give an update. Some people are noticing the time between
entries gets longer and that is due to a lack of anything significant to
report. That is, anything significant to
do with Jeff’s health. News, however, we
do have!
First, let’s get Jeff’s health
report out of the way. Several weeks ago
Jeff began to slow down considerably. He
was quite forlorn about not having energy to do anything. He met minimal social obligations, did not
work much at all and had trouble making decisions about the simplest
things. We talked about the possible
reasons for this. A lingering cough
could indicate an infection. Perhaps he
had mild depression; the NMDP told us to expect this at about a year
post-transplant. Maybe he was just missing
those steroids. After several weeks, we
called Dr. Porter’s office to report this development. Dr. Allison Rager returned the call and,
honing in on the cough and cold symptoms as the likely culprits, she gave Jeff her
expert opinion. Jeff called me at work
to relay Dr. Rager’s advice, “This is really out of my area. I think you need to see your family doctor.” The family doctor! Neither of us had thought of that! We had a good chuckle over our dependence on
the oncologist.
The family doctor diagnosed
allergies. This is not the time of year
that pre-transplant Jeff suffered with allergies. Perhaps we are discovering new things about
his immature immune system. Fatigue
continues to plague Jeff and keeps him from working as much as he thinks he
should be able to. He described it to a
friend, “Work a day, sleep a day…” which is probably a generous estimation of
his work schedule.
In other news, Jeff and I vacationed
in Savannah, GA, in the days just prior to Keith’s graduation from Marine Boot
Camp at Parris Island, SC. We were more
than a little glad that Keith’s shoulder injury delayed his graduation from
August to October as we enjoyed temperatures in the 70s. Jeff sweat profusely as we walked the town so
we were sure that August heat would have prevented our enjoying this beautiful
walking town. We toured the Roundhouse
Railroad Museum, Juliette Gordon Low’s House, saw some film locations including
the park where Forrest Gump sat on a bench declaring, “Life is like a box of
chocolates…” We saw SCAD’s Little Black
Dress exhibit, took a horse and buggy ride and ate at three of Savannah’s five
best restaurants. Food highlights
included Jeff’s tur-duck-en burger and Amy’s Gator Gumbo.
On Wednesday of graduation week we
toured Parris Island alone. We would not
be allowed to see Keith until Thursday.
Late Wednesday afternoon we saw the new Marines practicing for
graduation. We scoured the sea of
uniformed young people, hoping to catch a glimpse of Keith. Other parents whispered excitedly, “Is that
him?” Someone lent us their binoculars
and we picked Keith out of a large mass of humanity, the largest graduating
class this year (700+). After taking
about 20 pictures with zoom, we realized that it was not Keith after all! We eventually found his platoon and picked
him out successfully. Keith said that as
he stood rigidly “at rest” in platoon formation, he heard his dad’s laughter
and knew we were nearby.
Keith showed us around the island on
Thursday. It was nice to talk to Keith
for the first time in four and a half months especially since his letters had
become scarce towards the end. He told
us he learned how to sleep on command - or at will - but that he’d had very little
sleep over the last few days. In fact,
he fell asleep during our tour of the Recruit Chapel and, after his brief
snooze, we returned him to his platoon. That
evening, we picked Kim up from the Savannah airport and also made arrangements
to have lunch with Jeff’s cousin, Joyce, and her husband, Milt, on our way home
after graduation.
On graduation day, Jeff, Kim and I
saw the Colors Ceremony complete with performances by the Marine Corps Band and
uplifting remarks from Commanding General Lori Reynolds. Graduation itself was really like a giant
parade. Sergeant Legend, the Marine dog,
made his appearance in his dress uniform.
Finally, it was over and it was time to load Keith’s paraphernalia into
the car and head home.
Our ride home was an ongoing
celebration as people we met along the way congratulated Keith and thanked him
for his service. We had lunch with Joyce
and Milt in South Carolina and breakfast with Keith’s cousin, Harry, in North
Carolina the next day. Kim shared driving
duties with me on the way home and we had a friendly competition to see which
of us would get the best gas mileage out of the new Kia.
Superstorm Sandy extended Keith’s
leave for two days while he waited for a flight to North Carolina for his next
training. We were without power for just
two days and were glad to have Keith’s help to run the generator. I was off of work for a week as a result of
the storm. Jeff and I cuddled under a
blanket listening to a Zane Grey novel.
Fun! The storm and the time off
of work also allowed me to spend more time with my mother, recently placed in
at-home hospice care for a GI tract cancer, and my sister, Tracy, who was
visiting my mother from Colorado.
Last weekend marked another year
with our traditional annual celebration of Oktoberfest! Jeff declined to participate in the Strong
Man, Bist du Stark, competition, accepting his limitations easily. At Oktoberfest we finally were able to share
the best news ever: we are going to be
grandparents! Kerry and Theresa had
shared the news with us a few weeks earlier over Goodnoe’s ice cream and are
finally comfortable making the news official.
Jeff and I are busy trying out names for ourselves although friends have
warned us that sometimes grandparents are dubbed by their grandchildren,
despite any preferences the adults may have.
We can’t stop our brainstorming on the subject, regardless!
Life is good!
