OK, Looooong time no see! Here's the
thing – Tony's OK and we do have some small news to impart, but
things really are not changing much these days, so we do not feel
like we have much to tell you.
News, Tony has been off of prednisone
now for about a month. That's good. He is holding steady without
that important drug there as a buffer. He is still on many other
meds, but not being on Prednisone is GOOD.
Next week, Tony will see the podiatrist
(for the 5th or 6th time in as many weeks) and
the Doc will cut back his ingrown toe nails in an effort to keep them
at bay for several months. Its not surgery, but Tony will need to
keep his feet above the level of his nose for about 3 days.
Eyes and feet (achy bottoms of feet)
are still at the same level of discomfort. As for the feet, Tony
really cannot stand without moving for more than a minute or two
before they become terribly uncomfortable. Walking is a different
story, but because of his toe nails, he is not walking too far right
now.
As for the eyes, many of you probably
remember that Tony had scarring on his eyelids due to the graft vs
host desease. This scarring rubs against his eyeballs and scratches
them. Tony has a couple of true discomforts with his eyes that the
scarring causes. One is that his eyes are VERY dry and need drops
added every 10 – 15 minutes. The wind or any flowing air is a
dramatic accelerator of that dryness. So we need to get special gel
pouches for the sides of Tony's glasses so his eyes will be shielded
from the wind. The second discomfort with his eyes is that bright
lights are deeply offensive. So we are working on getting
transitions lenses and we spent some time trying to figure out if we
needed prescription sunglasses too, or an over the glasses sun glass
type thing, or something. We think we have the right plan in place
now, we just need to get all the parts. His eyes need a rest.
On the work front, Tony is still
working mostly 40 hour weeks. That's good but hard on him. This
week, he advanced a little further down “normal” lane and has
taken back the responsibility of being on call. That means longer
days and the possibility of calls in the night. So, all of this is
progress.
As for the medicines Tony is on, its
been some time since I updated you guys on this. But he gets 13 oral
medicines, sometimes 4 of one kind a day, and he has several
different lotion and potion medicines for his eyes. So things are
still pretty intricate in that regard. (I feel like I spent the last
year earning a pharmaceutical terminology degree!:)
Here's hoping you are all safe,
healthy, happy, and thankful for what you have - whether that be 1
small thing or many FANTASTIC things. We love you and feel bad about
the silences, but really don't want to blog just for the sake of
blogging!
(To toot my own horn, my students and
their families raised close to $1400 for the United Food Bank this
past week and that equals close to 7000 meals the Food Bank can
provide to those in need. When I was little and times were tough in
my family, an organization reached out to us and helped us out. I
remember that and hope that my students and I can help families the
same way. {OK, OK, they gave us split peas---but I don't want to
look a gift horse in the mouth!!! })
Peace and love :) Happy
Thanksgiving-Karen and Tony
