Gardening

This is the layout for our garden

I haven't posted for almost a month now. No need to worry. My condition seems to still be steadily improving. I am still on prednisone that seems to make me feel weak. I work for a few hours until I feel tired and then relax for a while before going back to work. By the end of the day my feet are so sore I can barely stand. My skin is very sensitive to the sun. I need to cover up and slather lots of sunscreen. I still get red where I get sun in spite of spf 100 sunscreen. I need to stay out of the sun at least for another two or three months so as not to aggravate my immune system and set off a GVH reaction. Small insults to my skin could snowball into a case of full blown GVH. I noticed recently from just a minor exposure on the back of my hands, my skin blistered in a few places. After meeting with my doctor today we decided to stay indoors from 10:00 AM until 04:00 PM. I have been given more freedom

In spite of all that I have been doing a lot of bike rides and this past week I have been working on getting a garden in for the spring. I built a nice fence with a gate to keep the dogs out. The fence has chicken wire to let light through and to give climbing plants like cucumbers a place to grow. Old redwood fencing will be made into raised beds that will be laid out in a grid. I visited a stable and brought back a truckload of fresh manure to make a huge compost pile for my raised beds. That was a long day. I didn't want the subject for the next day at the clinic to be a debate about the safety of pitching manure so I steered Billie out of the backyard until after the clinic. When she did see the pile it didn't dawn on her right away that it was mostly manure. It just looked like a pile of straw the first day.

This is the pile on the first day

This is the pile after three turns and a week.

The squirrels were competing too well for the remainder of the oranges so I picked all the oranges and brought them inside. At the rate the squirrels were eating them they would have been gone in a couple days.

The end of the oranges.

The summer navel orange tree in the garden area had grown very fast and gotten away from us in the past few years. It was already a great producer in just six years. We cut it back severely to give it a longer trunk and to keep the oranges out of reach of the dogs. Before it made a nice shady canopy that Tempo liked to sleep under during the hot summer days. She likes to dig and make nests in the cool dirt.

Tempo's nests under the orange tree.

Working in the garden has exposed me to a little too much sun in spite of covering up. I thought I was doing enough but I was wrong.

An old t shirt scrap covers my ears and neck but I still got too much sun.

Back On the Bike

My 1979 Colnago Super

Finally after over two weeks of setbacks like BK virus and an unfortunate encounter with Mojos' foot. I am finally back on my bike. The drugs I am taking cause wasting and I can see what happens when my activity level declines. I get weak. Just when I was getting over the nasty BK virus Mojo slammed me while he was dashing out the door. He used my toe for purchase to launch himself outside. It was early morning and I think I woke Billie up with a few bad words. Sorry Billie.

My owie might not have looked this ugly if my platelets were not hanging at about 80.

Consequently my foot swelled up and it was even more painful to walk. By this past Wednesday I had healed enough that I was able to don my riding shoes and take my old steel Colnago out for a spin. I was surprised once again how natural it felt to be on the bike. I felt much better riding than walking. For some reason my feet still get very sore from standing and walking. Riding does not seem to put as much pressure on my feet.

Not knowing how far I should go in the state I'm in, I only went about ten miles the first day. The next day I felt fine going fifteen miles. I bought a cool app for my iPhone that is a bike computer. It maps my ride with the GPS, gives average speed, max speed, elevation gained and a bunch of other stuff for only $4.99. Thats how I know I went fifteen miles.

Today was clinic day in San Francisco, so the whole day was spent traveling back and forth dawn till dusk. We went to our apartment on Merced Lake for the last time, picked up a few items, cleaned the place and checked out for the last time. From now on clinic days will go faster when we don't have to go to the apartment and move stuff out. By the time we left SF the traffic was snarled with flooding near highway 1 and Doyle Dr. Heavy rain made the trip slow all the way home. Billie and I arrived home both tired and testy.

I neglected to bring my meds with me when we went to the clinic so I downed them all at once when I arrived home. Consequently I am now up at 3:15 AM writing this because I can't sleep. I usually take the prednisone in the afternoon so I can sleep at night. Oh well. It's not like I have to get up and go to work the next day. I have never been one to worry much about how much sleep I get. I seem to always get enough sleep somehow and have rarely felt sleep deprived.

The weather has put the kibosh on our plans to go to Tahoe this weekend. Driving in a snowstorm on I-80 crowded with other weekenders does not seem very appealing right now. We haven't spent a night there in about four months now.

Here is a nice youtube clip I found that pretty much describes my whole outlook on life starring some of my favorite heroes including Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan and Neal DeGrasse Tyson among others.

No News on Day 76

Craigslist Corporate Headquarters

9th Ave between Irving and Judah.

This is day 76 out from my bone marrow transplant. At the clinic today my blood counts were in the normal range for the first time in months. My platelets are still a little low and I have no t cells but the rest of the blood is coming along fine. Everything is where it is supposed to be at this time. In two weeks I will be due for my first bone marrow biopsy since October. If the cancer is coming back then the biopsy will tell. Even if there is a little cancer we hope the graft from Maura will eat it up. The strategy is to give Mauras' cells a longer leash by reducing the immune suppressant drugs. It will be graft versus leukemia or GVL as they say. The best outcome would be no detectable cancer in the biopsy. We will know in about 3 weeks.

I have symptoms of GVH in my skin and gut. I am not sure what is making me feel weird. Is it the drug side effects, the GVH or a combination?

My appetite is still behaving peculiar. Certain foods still have no appeal that used to sound good. I do like fruit. I am eating lots of frozen tropical fruit from Trader Joe's and frozen strawberries. I still can eat beans in soup and chili. Pizza and pasta are unappetizing for some reason.

Billie at Baker Beach

After we visit the clinic we often meander about town looking at the local sights. Today we visited Baker Beach and toured the Richmond District. Billie bought a few take out meat pies from a bakery on Irving St. That is as close as we can get to eating out. We save lots of money not eating out these days. We like to eat at restaurants but that will have to wait.

I love all the rain we have been getting. Tomorrow we will check our Bolete spot to see if there are any more coming up. I have my camera with me now so I will be able to post more photos. I wish I had my camera when we found the boletes the first time. They are so beautiful. It is also the best time to find Blewits which are another one of my favorite edibles. Mushrooms make good photo subjects because they stand still and don't blow in the wind.

This is a little bungalow

between Irving and Lincoln on 42nd Ave

Click on photos for a larger view