It's Friday morning. The President is speaking to the public about the economy (although I imagine few are listening). I am listening, via the Stephanie Miller Show. I listen to Stephanie on 92.1 the Mic out of Madison, WI, because I cannot stand to listen to AM 950 KTNF here in the Twin Cities. Seven years ago I worked there as Production Director, for five of the most unpleasant months of my life. It was my second-to-last radio job, and at five months' tenure I lasted longer than a lot of people did.
I am grateful for that job getting me out of Eau Claire, WI, and into the Cities. Lord love ya, Eau Claire, you are not the town for me. It was a place to land, a port in a storm, and while I do intellectually accept that there are people who prefer Eau Claire to the rest of the world, I am not one of them. I shall not rant against the place, tough... it's got its good points, and the radio gig there was good to me, and the food at Heckel's (technically in Chippewa Falls) was always pretty good.
Heckels Family Restaurant
I was just thinking about what a year it's been. Phil is getting his degree this August, and there is other good news in the offing for my husband but One cannot say just yet. Monica & Anthony are having their wedding-wedding in August as well (they already got married, was it really just last year?). My friends Deb and Pam have been laid to rest, bless them both, they shall be missed. Ross has joined the Navy and we'll be watching his basic training graduation in a couple of weeks (literally, two weeks from today, oh my!).
Our lovely Amanda is staying home from the hospital for a time. She is, truly, so lovely. Last Sunday Phil and I had the opportunity to visit Zach & Amanda & the girls, and Monica, who is here for a couple of weeks. I love this beautiful family so much! There is nothing like getting climbed on and competed for by those three beautiful little girls. I really want their mother to enjoy a full recovery, and one day have her own granddaughters to climb on her and compete for her. Of any of us, Amanda deserves the most to live and be well. The look in Zachary's eyes as he watches his beautiful wife... he loves her so much... he is so scared of maybe losing her... I think he's aged ten years since Easter. Maybe we all have.
I had a checkup on the 29th, and turns out, I have great numbers! All my tests came back looking great. I'm healthy! Yay!! But I can't join the bone-marrow registry anyway. I have some pretty problematic stuff with my spine, and I take a prescription anti-inflammatory, and that's all it takes for them to kick you out. I haven't heard whether any of the rest of the family have applied for it. We wouldn't be applying for a direct match with Amanda, but we would be putting ourselves into a pool of potential matches for a pool of people who will need bone marrow transplants.
The doctors are talking about cord blood for Amanda at this time, instead of marrow... the things you learn, huh? This, from Wikipedia, pretty much boils it down:
Cord blood is obtained by syringing out the placenta through the umbilical cord at the time of childbirth, after the cord has been detached from the newborn. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, including hematopoietic cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders.
This, from cancer.org, really lays it out there:
Because the high doses of chemotherapy needed to kill the leukemia cells often destroy the bone marrow as well, many patients also need a blood stem cell transplant to basically create new bone marrow. In this procedure, stem cells (the cells that give rise to new blood cells) are removed from a donor's blood or bone marrow and transplanted into the patient.
Amanda's doctors won't permit her to go to North Carolina for Monica's wedding. I think we can all adjust to that. I just want her to be there to dance at the weddings of her daughters.
So, yeah, what a year, huh? Life and death and change and hope and fear and stuff.
Here is a closeup of the food in that wok pictured above: Eggplant, white kidney beans, diced tomato, red onion, garlic cloves, a bit of leftover sweet potato w/ green onion... And the Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs & spices. It's a lot of different things together, see?
No comments:
Post a Comment