Mistakes, mistakes

I felt SO much better today!  Yippee!  I still didn't do much, but at least I felt like I could breathe and didn't feel so weak.  Ahhh...

So it seems like every time I turn around we are making silly mistakes.  But we knew this process wouldn't be perfect... far from it!  A few days ago we stopped by Rubios.  Jeff went in and ordered.  We brought it home.  Jeff spread the salsa containers onto the table, gave them a nice inquisitive stare, and said "Katie, you can't have any salsa."  I always eat the chipotle one.  I stared at my favorite salsa... tempting me with its smoky goodness.  And then it hit me (well, other than the fact that it's probably raw but I was going to ignore that).  It's from a salsa BAR... an open, germ infested, sneeze guard covered salsa BAR.  Oh, crap.  Good thing I'd only had it about 3 times earlier post transplant :-P  Hopefully the next time we go they might be willing to fill up some cups from the pitcher in the back for me.

Then tonight I wanted to go for a walk.  So off we go.  I am doing really well (except for the huge portion of homemade lasagna, garlic bread and donuts from Holly digesting in my gut).  We get to the huge wall of roses.  I stop, swing around, stare at Jeff and call him by his full name.  He stares at me a second, then asks, "Katie, where the HECK is your mask?"  He runs home to get me my mask as I slowly back away from the roses...  The walk was really good and I was out of breath when we got back.  Like out of breath from exercise and walking quickly.  It was such a weird feeling.  Normally, out of breath means close to fainting or it just feels awful.  This felt good in a weird way.  My heart was pumping hard and I hadn't felt what that was like in years.  I meant to go grab my pulse oximeter but didn't.  I'll take it with me next time so I can see how I'm doing!  It felt good to expand the ribcage a bit :-)

My most awesomest Aunt Sue (well, she's really not my Aunt but it's too confusing to call her my second cousin twice removed or whatever) sent me some fabulous Chanel lipgloss.  As I was slathering it on my pale, pasty lips I realized that I can never try anything on at a cosmetics counter EVER AGAIN.  Germs.  Icky things from icky people.  I can try eyeshadow on the back of my hand, I guess. It's not a big deal, just something I hadn't really thought too much about before.  I always thought it was a bit icky, and I liked the places where the salespeople monitored and got the lipgloss on a swab for you (although there's still no guarantee about cleanliness).

So luckily none of the mistakes have been TOO bad.  I know there will be many more, but we try so hard to eliminate them!  I actually think they are kind of funny.  But in a very serious way.  Whatever the heck that means...

Jeff went to Target the other day and I asked him to get more antibacterial wipes in the purse packs and loads of small antibacterial hand gels.  He asked how many... I said, oh, LOTS.  He came home with a Target bag full of wipes and gels.  I love that man.

OMGosh!  So Jennell and I were talking the other day and she had a brilliant idea.  We were talking about me being able to go to restaurants again, yadda yadda.  And she said she had the perfect thing for me.  So a few days later I get these awesome plastic kid sticky mats from Amazon.  They are placemats that stick to the table.  Jennell said that I can wrap it around the edge of the table so my arms can rest on the edge and not get gross!  Cuz I don't know if you've ever noticed that they wipe off tables with a nasty old rag that has food stains on it... grody.  These placemats are the cutest things ever!  Fast food trays and the liners are gross too.  They never clean those trays well.  SO nasty.  So I can put my food on the kiddie mat and stay nice and clean!  I LOVE THEM!  We are gonna put a pack in each car.  I totally think I should break them out when Jeff and I go to George's at the Cove for my celebratory dinner when I can go out in public.  It will be a bit weird on the nice table linens, but surely they'll understand??  Totally just kidding!  But I might break one out and take a picture just because I'm crazy like that.

Well Jeff outdid himself and got me some bling-bling as a "you survived transplant so YAY!" present.  It's a gorgeous antique diamond encrusted butterfly pendant in rose gold.  It's a little over the top and kind of flashy, just like me, so it's absolutely perfect :-)  He gave it to me at the hospital on my second to last day when we ventured outside and I breathed fresh air for the first time with my new lungs (I had a mask on! Don't worry!).  We sat on the brick wall and watched the rock fountains with the lights.  It was absolutely perfect.  I was going somewhere with this story and lost my train of thought... sigh... oh well.  But the pendant is gorgeous and such an awesome symbol of what I've managed to accomplish so far.  I love the Phoenix (bird) and the symbology behind that too.  But butterflies are much easier to find...  Maybe my train of thought was leading to the Phoenix?  Oye.  Who the heck knows.

Ack!  It's 2130 (that's 9:30 pm for you non-military types).  Past my bedtime!  I'll type at ya again later...