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.