Mothers Day (D+65)

Nice day today. We took in a couple of soccer games, as Paul's team won its semifinal and championship games in his club's hometown tournament. Paul took a hard fall in the second of yesterday's games and missed this morning's game with back spasms, but he recovered enough to play some good minutes in the championship game.

I have to protect myself from sunlight. Some sources say it's because sunlight can trigger graft-vs-host disease, and my doctor says it's because I will burn easily. This is why I go for my walk/jog early in the morning or in the evening. Youth soccer games are typically very sunny affairs with no shade to be found. Luckily for me, the boys played on a field with trees on the east and north sides, and an officials tent on the west side, which meant I was always able to find a place to sit out of the sun and take in the game. For two of the weekend's four games, this meant being at the opposite end of the field from most of the action, but it was still a lot of fun to be out watching Paul and his teammates play some beautiful soccer.

Other precautions I need to take, besides avoiding sunlight, all to minimize the risk of catching something:

• Avoid small children (or, as they are known in the transplant world, "disease vectors")
• Avoid people who work with or have small children
• Avoid people who are sick
• Avoid crowds (because you never know who in the crowd might be sick)
• Avoid shaking hands
• Avoid salad bars (because you don't know who preceded you through the line, touching the serving utensils, maybe sneezing on the food...)
• Avoid meat and cheese sliced at a deli (less risky than a salad bar, but still...)
• Avoid yard work, gardening, dusting, and vacuuming (because it kicks up fungi and bacteria)
• Wash and/or sanitize hands frequently (because even with all of the above precautions, you're still touching things -- money, handles -- that are also loaded with microorganisms that a fully functioning immune system can usually handle

As long as I am taking the anti-rejection medication, my immune system is suppressed. So I take a bunch of anti-bacterial, -viral, and-fungal medications, and I take the precautions above.

Tomorrow, Jan and I head back to Chicago for my now-bi-weekly appointment. The highlight is that I'm also having my Hickman Triple Lumen taken out, another sign of progress ("you won't be needing transfusions") and another step closer to normal existence (no more line flushing and extra shower precautions). Jan will also get to meet my doctor in person for the first time.

As for Mothers Day, it was pretty low key. In addition to the soccer games, Jan also got in a couple of naps. I made dinner — baked chicken, roasted white and sweet potatoes, asparagus, salad (spinach from our garden, clementines, glazed walnuts, peppers, mushrooms). We got some flowers, but they have to stay outside — cut flowers, or more precisely the vases of stagnant water in which they sit, are another infection risk we need to avoid. Instead, we got a mass of potted lilies that are sitting on a table on our patio and that Paul can plant soon.

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out there!