I’ve been away. Most of the time I was away I took a picture or two each day. Now that I am back, I’ve been forgetting to take pictures. 🙁

I’ve been away having a stem cell transplant. I had a nasty rare lymphoma that doesn’t like to stay away even after you have had chemo, so a stem cell transplant was the way to increase my chances of long term survival. It wasn’t as harrowing as I anticipated, thank goodness, but it wasn’t a day at the spa either.

Now that I am transplanted and home again, I hope to get my blogging mojo back. I’ll start by catching up with where I’ve been and what I’ve seen the past few weeks. So, as per The Secret Life of Bloggers, here are my daily photos. I was going to do all of them in one post, but I see that I am wearing out, so I’ll catch up one by one, I guess.

1-24-2014

I know it doesn’t look like much if you live where it really snows – but this is sleet and ice – and who can drive on ice, especially if there isn’t much in the way of equipment to handle it? Anyway, it was enough to make the roads very slick and cause lots of accidents and so we couldn’t make it to San Antonio for my pre-transplant appointment on time. Had to delay two days.

1-25-2014

In my last Secret Life of Bloggers post, this box was still wrapped in a big colorful plastic bag. Gifts from church family and ESL students for every day that I’ll be away/in treatment . I took out a few to take with me to San Antonio for my short stay for stem cell harvesting.

1-26-2014

Arriving at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio for first shot.

1-27-2014

Hmmm… exotic shoes

And this was posted on my Facebook page by a friend:

I found this prayer and wanted to share…

Let us pray to our Lord:

Lord, look upon Kathy with eyes of mercy,
may Your healing hand rest upon her,
may Your lifegiving powers flow into every cell of her body
and into the depths of her soul,
cleansing, purifying, restoring her
to wholeness and strength for service in Your Kingdom.

Amen

1-28-2014

Lunch

1-29-2014

Waiting for Quinn’s Venous Catheter to be put in my neck. Not a fan. Back at the hotel – time for chocolate and opening my first gifts from church family.

1-30-2014

Apheresis – otherwise known as harvesting stem cells. I was one of the lucky few who harvest enough cells in only one day. Yay! I am sure it was because of the persistent cheering by my friends and family, “Go stem cells go!”