Busy times

I love the Holidays.  I love everything about the Holidays, but I really like how much cool stuff there is to do.  It does get a bit overwhelming at times, but it's always fun.

Jeff and I have been super busy.  We saw John Williams conduct the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.  You know... the guy who wrote the music for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Far and Away, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Harry Potter (woo hoo!!!), and a bazillion other movies.  We got to hear some music from the new movie Lincoln.  I apologize for not properly identifying the titles as movies (italicize? quotations? underline?) sigh... I'm too lazy to look on Google and would much rather type a really long run-on sentence about my laziness :-P.

On Saturday we went Downtown to watch the Army/ Navy game with some friends.  Then we caught a shuttle up to December Nights in Balboa Park.  Wow.  That was pure insanity.  I wore my mask the whole time b/c there were people everywhere.  I knew it was going to be packed, but I guess I didn't want to believe the pictures from previous Nights.  It was fun but there were germy, icky people everywhere.  I'm really glad we went, though!  I'm even more glad we went early and left early.  I could have eaten food from every single vendor and I especially liked the International Houses.  Each country had food that represented them.  And drinks in the beer garden :-)

On Sunday we did a Pottery Tour.  It's kinda cool.  A bunch of local artists open their homes and you drive around and shop.  And eat.  There are a few artists at each house (like 3-4) so you have a nice variety of stuff to look at.  That was fun too!  And seeing other artists backyards and workspaces was very inspiring.

But the coolest thing is that we could walk to a few of the places.  One was basically on my street (my street is a loop with 2 street names) just a few houses away.  The other was less than a mile away.  So we walked there, had lunch, and walked home.

So I guess you should get an update.  Well, the biggest news is that Kim got the call!  Then waited 18 hours to find out the lungs were filled with pus (eew, gross!).  So she continues to wait.  Her perfect lungs will come :-)  But the waiting really stinks.  She's been waiting 14 months.

The Good News:
The Remodulin rash on my legs is almost gone!  YAY!  I no longer look like my legs are 80 years old with age spots.  Hey, it's not much but every little bit helps.

I am still running.  So slowly that Jeff can walk as fast as I am jogging.  But my joints are feeling better!

I am still putting on weight (I hope it's muscle b/c muscle weighs more than fat, right?).  And eating like a champ.

My eyelashes have stopped falling out!

The cough is better.  I think the running and working out is helping everything.

I had my first massage since transplant and I wasn't out of breath just from getting on the table.  It was so amazing to lay there and still be able to breathe.  Absolutely amazing.

I don't even notice hills anymore when I'm out walking.

My breathing numbers are continuing to increase.  Yay running for increasing my lung capacity!


The Bad:
I still notice the hills when I am "running."  Boo.

My feet fall asleep or tingle for no reason at all.  Kind of like when your feet get really, really cold and then you warm them up too quickly.  Except my feet are warm the whole time.  It's annoying.

I haven't gotten the Prednisone Moon Face yet.  Good!  But I am developing a little double chin.  Bad.  Prednisone is yucky.

I still have a hard time handwriting things or doing fine motor skills.  The shakes... for some reason they only get bad when I hold a pen or try to pin fabric.  Or cut food with a sharp knife.  Or curl my hair.

I had a dentist appt last week so I took my antibiotic an hour before and drove to the office.  I discovered after I got there that my appt was the next day.  At least I wasn't a day late.  I am always early everywhere I go... sometimes by a full day :-P


The Ugly:
I broke the zipper on my red cocktail dress.  Like the zipper pull experienced metal fatigue and snapped.  Sigh... that does not help the self-esteem.  It fit a few months ago but I decided to wait and wear it to the Christmas Party.  Poop on that idea.  Good thing I had a stretchy black dress with no zipper.  Riiiggghhhhttt....

I am losing quite a lot of hair.  My ponytail requires an extra wrap of the rubberband.  And I wake up and clean hair off my pillow.  This also does not help the self-esteem.

Well, I said I'd tell it like it is and this recovery is full of twists and turns.  Lots of good and some not so good.  But there's more good than not so good, so it's all good :-P

Looking forward to a few more busy weeks!  And Jeff got his orders to go back to a ship in February, so that's really good news.  The ship is still being built in Louisiana so deployment is still quite a ways off.

Okey dokey, folks... have a great week and finish up that shopping!