Scrabble and Duck Tongues

Hi Stacey! Glad Dave is getting better, and that you have been able to entertain yourselves with Scrabble! I got to play a little bit of Scrabble in Panama for one of my Spanish classes, although I’m not sure that was a very effective way to learn new Spanish words since most of the words we were coming up with were only 2-4 letters long!

Anyhow, cool about having some good Chinese food. Now you are making me hungry… even with the duck tongues. I probably would have tried them, but that’s just me! 🙂

Social Times

The past couple months I have had some nice times with friends. On March 1st, I helped organize a?birthday party for Cindy Chiu. Cindy is one of my best friends; she was the caregiver/friend organizer while I was on the waiting list for a lung transplant two and a half years ago. Back then, I really needed a lot of love and help and I will never forget how she cared for me during hard times. We went climbing at Planet Granite in Belmont, then went out to dinner at the Joy Luck Palace restaurant. It was great celebrating her special day. We ordered 12 different dishes, including “duck tongues.” I didn’t have the courage to try that one!

Dave has been off work, but he continues to get stronger and walk without crutches. He has recently started climbing, biking on a stationary bicycle, and hiking. We have spent a lot of time together during these months he has been on disability, including playing Scrabble. He has started to beat me, so I’d better study some word lists!

I have also been climbing with Rhona and her young twin girls, Maya and Zoe. They are all developing in their ability to climb harder routes. The girls now have harnesses, and have ordered shoes! I made little achievement charts for them to record their progress.

I have been climbing with my roommate Tyndall quite often. We sometimes climb the same routes at the gym. I have been working on mostly 5.10c/d’s but I got up to the top of a 5.12a overhang with only three rests on Monday night. So climbing is going well.

My latest joy was going over to the Levin family’s house to celebrate Joshua’s birthday, which was?back in February. I got him a light-up Frisbee, which we tried out after dinner, along with table tennis and Scrabble, around 11 p.m. (much to his mother’s dismay.) Dinner was delicious; it was made by Richard; it was a tasty orzo pasta dish.  I had to have three servings of it, and skip the dessert. Later, Carrie beat me in both table tennis and Scrabble–I will have to practice more!

Good Job!

Hola, Stacey! That is great you are climbing such hard levels! In contrast, last week (actually with Tori) I failed miserably on an outdoor 5.11a in Panama, and then I could not really do anything for the rest of the day. Maybe I should eat some spinach next time. Oh! I guess I too should heed the warnings on the blenders that say to place your hand over the top when operating it. I thought mine had that warning due to some silly lawyers but maybe it is a good idea!

Take care and ttys!

-Felix

Spinach Explosion

Hola, Tori! Thanks for the note from Panama. We continue to appreciate this website.

As I write, I am covered with spinach from head to toe. I’m not dressing up in costume for some nutrition educational event… no, it was a case of being quite unfamiliar with the vita-max food processor in the new kitchen! Little did I know, it was on “High” and that means HIGH. The top flew off, the machine made a loud buzzing noise, and all the soup sprayed onto everything in sight, including me.

Time for a shower!

LATER

I’m now finally done with cleaning spinach off myself, the windows, stove, can opener, cupboards, toaster, coffeemaker, etc. It took about two hours, and the soup didn’t even turn out. I guess I win some, and lose some…back to stir-frys and more familiar recipes.

The new house is very impressive. I have two friendly roommates, Tyndall and Roy. They both keep everything really clean, and Tyndall is always working on projects around the house. Today, he built a step for the garden. He is also a climber, so sometimes we go to the gym. The most beautiful thing about the house is the mahagony wooden floor downstairs. It is so nice, I feel like using the “Swiffer” vacuum on it constantly. (Tomorrow I’ll mop, due to the spinach problem today.)

Greetings from Panama!

Hi Stacey! It’s great to read an update from you! I’m glad you recovered from the rejection and that your recent cough is nothing too serious.

Keep up the journaling 🙂
I may be a bad emailer, keeper-in-touch person, but I do reguarly check in and love to read your updates.

-tori

Health update

Greetings to my long-lost readers! I am sorry for not posting in a while. I thought I’d better get on the ball when my mother said, “Now I only check your website every two weeks, and I’m your mother!”

In December and January, I was diagnosed and treated for acute rejection. By mid-February, it was determined that the IV treatments and new medicine had worked and I was cleared of any rejection!

In late February, I had a dermatology appointment to check on skin cancer. I am happy to report there is no evidence of any skin cancer, despite the extreme high risk of skin cancer in transplant patients, and coaching soccer outdoors last fall!

So, things were going quite well, but last Saturday I came down with a nasty cough and phoned the doctor on call to ask what to do. He said to come into the emergency room immediately to get it checked out. So faithful friend and caregiver Dave Allen came and picked me up, and we spent six hours in the emergency room. They did all sorts of tests, including blood tests and nose swabs and determined that I didn’t have influenza, strep throat, pneumonia, or anything terrible like that. In my follow-up visit on Monday, they concluded I had a case of acid reflux, which isn’t so serious. I have since just been sleeping a lot and using over-the-counter medication, but the cough still persists, though not so awful as to keep me up all night like at the beginning.

Despite the cold, I am very pleased to be climbing at?my highest level since the transplant. I’ve started a new goal chart I wrote for myself. It is comprised of 100 climbs rated 5.10a-5.11b that I’m going to climb without falling (on top-rope.) The hardest part will be completing the 20 climbs rated 5.11a or 5.11b. The Friday before I went into the emergency room, I surprised myself and some friends by climbing a 5.11c without falling on only the second try! I am now almost half-way done with the goal chart; I have done 45 of the 100 climbs.

Hi Stacey!

Hi Stacey! Great meeting you at the gym, and thanks for the “She-Climbs” website! You’re truly an inspiration! I’ll be climbing tonight – hope to see you there. Climb on!!