Soccer players, antenna's, and a rotating restaurant

So yesterday was my one month anniversary for transplant!! I had the usual round of clinic appointments yesterday, which makes for a very long day, so we decided to celebrate tonight when we were all feeling rested and up to going out.

All the appointments and tests went very well, I am continuing to heal and progress right on track. The cultures for the mystery blisters came back.....and they cultured nothing. That is good in that they are not fungal, bacterial, or viral, but it is also kind of frustrating because now they are even more mysterious in that no one has any idea of why, or where they came from. They have just been deemed "minor ulcerations." The important thing is that they are healing up nicely, getting a little smaller everyday and beginning to scab over. The minor infection I had going on in my new lower right lobe is cleared up as well, and all of my labs came back normal.

So, lots of reasons for celebrating, (not to mention that it is also St. Patrick's Day, one of my favorite holidays, being that I am half Irish and my favorite color is green). So we went to dinner at the top of the Space Needle (thank you Joan), combining our evening of celebration with a required tourist experience. 

The food was awesome, some of the best seafood and steak I have ever tasted. I had a little trouble when we first got up there, seeing that I am still on morphine and my world is already always spinning, being over 500ft. in the air in a rotating restaurant did not do much to improve my equilibrium. Fortunately my stomach settled after a bit and I was able to thoroughly enjoy my meal.

I mentioned my new fascination with ice cream in the last post, and now I am discovering that I am just fascinated with food in general. I have not really had an appetite for the past five years, and now being able to breath and starting to exercise again, I have finally got my appetite back and I now understand why gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. (But since I need to gain about 20lbs. I am not worried about overeating at this point.)

(Another thought on that, I think I am the only 25 year old woman that I know who is trying to GAIN 20lbs. and is drinking weight gain shakes, instead of weight loss shakes.)

The view of course was amazing from the top of the Space Needle, and we were able to find our apartment building, which was cool in a dorky sort of tourist way. I have to say though, the highlight of the evening was that the newly founded pro soccer team of Seattle was having a special dinner at the top of the Needle tonight, and the entire soccer team was in the lobby when we got there. Talk about eye candy!!!!

One of the players went to my high school (yes Jean, that would be Nate), and my dad kept trying to get me to go talk to him. Even though we went to the same high school, I don't actually know him, and having gone through a fairly recent, rather traumatic and prolonged break up, and massive surgery, (not to mention that I have total morphine brain), I have not exactly gotten my mojo back. And waltzing up to a pro athlete in front of news cameras and saying "hi, we went to high school together" was not something I felt inclined to do. I was also wearing a tutu and St. Patrick's Day themed antennae, and although I was having fun in that outfit, I was not in uber-sexy-hit-on-the-hot-soccer-players mode.

(Just for the record, it was a stylish, big girl tutu from Jcrew, not some pooffy ballerina thing.) 

Anyways, we had a very lovely evening, both Keith and Peg got tipsy off of one glass of wine while I was stuck drinking a Shirley Temple. Because again, I am still on morphine and mixing alcohol and narcotics is generally not a good idea.

Even with all the good food, hot soccer players, holiday, and celebrating, I think my favorite part of the day was going to the gym. To even think about going to the gym and working out is amazing in and of itself. I can't tell you how long it has been since trying to get some excercise was not a matter of trying to stay alive and ward off the progression of my disease, versus something to go do to stay in shape and prolong my life and health in a normal way. Nobody really likes going to the gym even when they are in peak condition, but there are plenty of other physical activities out there that you actually get excited about doing. For the past 7 years I have put a smile on my face, popped a vicodin, and sucked up the pain in order to be out in the world doing the things I love, even though my lungs and body were screaming for me to stop because they had to work so hard to get me down a river, up that rock, down that slope, or up that hill. Just laughing was painful because all the muscles that had to contract over and over again with all of the coughing would also contract when laughing, and instead of enjoying a good laugh I would start coughing so hard that I would almost pee myself and/or throw up. Now I can go to the gym and actually do an effective work out and not cough once!! My body hurts because it is recovering from surgery and I have lost all my muscle mass and I am totally out of shape, but it is now a good kind of hurt as I recover and get my strength back. 

More and more through this experience I am discovering how important it is to take pleasure in the simple things in life. A good meal, a restful uninterrupted sleep, a vigorous long walk that reminds you of what it is to just be alive and breathing deeply.