Challenges and Updates

HEALTH UPDATE
As time is progressing providing updates on my progress has become a little more challenging. I haven’t really wanted to put the same post up on a weekly basis that basically says the same thing; my GVHD is tracking well, no noticeable flare-ups and my steroid was tapered yet again.  That is my weekly health update in a nutshell J

There was some great news that came out last week’s appointment.  I have been tracking so well that they have moved me to only having to go in every other week.  Of course the first two weeks that I start this diminished schedule I have to go in for other appointments but that seems to be the way things work out.  It happened when I was reduced to once a week if you remember as well J

The only real downside to this new schedule is it slows down my tapering process.  As you can tell, I am ready to be off all these immunosuppressants but it is looking like I won’t be until at least June.  They take their time near the end of the taper and do it slowly because the percentage drop in dosage is much larger than before and they want to avoid flare-ups.  As long as the slow taper works, I will be happy.

PERSONAL UPDATE
On a personal note, last Friday was quite a milestone day for me.  It marked my Day+100.  This means that someone else’s cells have been keeping me alive for 100 days now.  When you take a step back and reflect on this, the magnitude is mind boggling.

CONTEST UPDATE
The time to grow contest came to a close last week and it turned out to be quite the success.  The blog’s readership grew in leaps and bounds and actually achieved my personal goal of 200 readers.  The two winners of the contest were Lauren Bailey and Mollie Lalonde Lynch.  Congratulations!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been promoting the blog and passing it along to others.  I can’t say how much it means to me that you enjoy my writing and what I have to say enough to pass it along and share it with others.  I hope that this is just the beginning and the blog will continue to grow, so please continue to pass it along to those you will gain from it.

PERSONAL CHALLENGES
With my health updates being pretty much a “standard template” (which isn’t a bad thing), I thought I could also use this space to update you on some new endeavours I have embarked on.

Now that I have surpassed day 100 I decided I am no longer a weak a recovering bone marrow patient.  It is time to start getting strong again.  So I am following the same program I started last year.  It began with walking everyday and slowly building up to the point where I was able to go to spinning classes.    My walking challenge for the time being is to get out for a minimum of one hour at least 4 times per week.  This is just the starting point but you know what they say about goals, they need to measurable and achievable.

The second challenge is the one I am really excited about.  First, the nature of it will help me achieve my walking goal.  The challenge is not of my own creation but something I found on the internet and decided to try.  It is called Project 365.  Many people have tried this challenge and failed, which got my competitive juices flowing and wondering if I would have the discipline and motivation to complete it. From the outside the challenge is simple, take a photograph everyday for 365 days.  What makes it difficult is having the self discipline to take a photo every day.  The caveat is the photos can’t be of the same thing everyday either.  The goal is to challenge yourself creatively.

I thought it would be a fun way to both document my year, but also improve as a photographer.  I will share photos along the way in this webpage but will also have a sister page that I will be uploading each day’s photo to.  I will let you know when it is up at running.

That’s all for now.


Do You Enjoy This Blog? Get all my posts delivered FREE to your EMAIL!