Happy Birthday Donald

I know, I know....it has been awhile (nearly a week) since I wrote up my last entry. I am so bad. There has been plenty to talk about, problem is I have not been home a whole lot lately.....I went back on my bone marrow injections Monday since obviously my body just cannot handle being off of them (it was a "test" by my Oncologist to see what would happen without them...the test failed miserably, I must add). Tuesday we went to Denver, home of the Colorado Avalanche NHL team, sorry guys, but we are staunch Detroit Red Wing fanatics in this household, so tend to stay away from "Avaholic" country. Er, I mean Denver. Luckily this trip was short and sweet. I gave about 10 vials of blood to my wonderful Immunologist who bagged them up personally and handed them to two research doctors who are in the midst of some sort of in-depth project about a rare disease. They apparently talked to my doctor, knew I was coming, and flew in to collect my plasma. Hey, if they want to see if there is some sort of link to me from what they are currently studying, then fine by me. Even better if it turns out they get some sort of results for my bone marrow/immune deficiency difficulties.

We also got the chance to go out to eat that evening, hooray...it gets old cooking at home night after night after night.....we never ever go out for a meal so it was a welcome change.

So welcome in fact, we were really bold and went again tonight. Different restaurant mind you.

Now just a quick comment about meat served in Colorado restaurants. Most of you know I can't stand meat, but eat it occasionally as my doctors fuss about me getting more vitamins etc etc etc than the average person. And what better way than through wonderful meat? Thing is, Coloridians must love their meat raw, as the few times we have gone out and I have actually ordered a steak, I order it well done. Char it. Burn it. Fine by me. But it always comes back practically raw, pink, oozing. I half expect them to walk the cow up to my plate, alive and mooing and say "dig in". My husband ate most of it. I left still hungry.I never complain about food in a restaurant, I am always paranoid of what they could possibly do to it in the back while correcting their mistakes.

The best thing about this week is we got all of the doctors' papers, the Air Force papers, our signatures in blood (OK, only messing about that) and everything in order to be faxed to some place in Texas I believe. And that means what? It means we should hear very very VERY soon about being able to move since I got accepted in a research study at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. Which is totally brilliant news. More research (free mind you) equals better treatments, which in turn means they might get me feeling halfway like my old self again. And that means I can go to work again (watch out DC area museums!) and Clare can get into school and I won't have to be so fearful of any germs, colds, coughs, sneezes and so on from everyone around me, since I won't be as susceptible to catching everything in the book. And that's a good thing.

Now the worst thing about this week is tomorrow, the 27th. That will be the 35th birthday of one of my very best friends in the whole wide world. The problem is, it will be the very first time in eleven years that I won't be able to see him or speak to him in honour of it. That would be my friend Donald. You probably remember reading about him passing in an entry back on 4th November. Anyhow, it has been hard enough not talking to him on the phone three times a week or reading his hilarious emails, which both usually included him bashing me for my Irishness....he was definitely a full blooded English boy at heart. Since we aren't currently living in Virginia I can't go visit him at his resting place, so I will have to settle on playing some Irish songs and maybe even break down and have a drink, and I will certainly do something a little English, just for him.

Happy Birthday Donald!!

The three "Correct History" sticklers as seen here at Jamestown Settlement, March of 2000. That would be Donald, Anna (Clare's Godmummy) & yep, that's me!