Over 7 months ago I was in Ottawa getting just a little more like my Dad as about 7 trillion of his stem cells were dropped into me. I can honestly say that I had no expectation of feeling this well 7 months after Transplant. When I learned of my relapse last summer I figured I would travel a similar road as the first time, I knew there would be very customized experiences, as there always are, but I did figure that I would have many of the same experiences as well. I was a year after my first Transplant before I could even entertain resuming work related duties or getting out and socializing with friends. Last July I was right and wrong.
I have had many of the same experiences and Challenges, and I have also had many different ones. As I look back on my time since July last year I feel the words “tougher” and “quicker” apply pretty well. The “tougher” word applies to my treatments as I don’t ever remember being as sick as I was last summer or after my Pre-Transplant chemo, physically sick I’m talking about. Obviously when I was in ICU after first Transplant I was at my sickest point, but I’m talking about physical pain and feeling after a round of chemo. And last summer was “tougher” than any time after chemo that I remember.
The “quicker” part comes into play right after the “tough” spots, as I feel that I recovered from those times at a super fast pace. After loosing lots more weight and even more strength last summer I was still able to Climb Signal Hill on September 20th, it was a Challenge but I got up there. Same thing after 2nd Transplant, my recovery and level of activity since Transplant time amazes me quite a bit. I said it when I was going through it, and I’ll say it again, I love the Ottawa approach to Transplant, keep me on my feet, force me to walk into the hospital every day, give me the responsibility, I love that approach and feel it is a big contributor to my “quick” recovery to this point.
Now while things on some fronts have been tougher, and my progress seems to be quicker than first time out, I am once again in a familiar Challenging situation. That situation relates to perhaps the most significant Challenge I’ll ever face in this life-time… the Challenge of balance.
Today I feel tired, great, but tired, and tired is something I have been feeling a lot lately. You see as I feel better I want to begin to do more things, such as work a little, see my friends and be social, rebuild myself physically, and all those things take energy, and that is where my balance Challenge kicks in. It is my nature to want to do everything all at once, and in my “previous” life I usually did everything all at once, however I have learned. That is no longer an option, for two reasons, one is I don’t have the energy, and two I have learned that I enjoy doing one thing at a time more than many all at once.
That said I do still love to push my limits a little, because I truly believe that if I don’t push them every now and then I’ll never know where they are. The key is for me to know myself, listen to my body, and not push myself too much. In the past many weeks I have been pushing myself, and then slacking off, pushing then recharging. And when I’ve been in motion “doing” I feel great, but when I slow down I realize how tired I am, and I have learned again even in the past few weeks since coming home from my trip to central high schools, that I need much more recovery time than I thought. So I’ll take that time.
Doctors have told me that it often takes about a year for a Patient’s energy to return to near normal levels after a Transplant. That is customized and every Patient is different, but it is a pretty good bench mark, though I will say it took me about 2 years after my first Transplant before I really felt in top shape regarding my energy, the muscle has never been the same and may never be, but that’s not my main concern, it’s the energy I’m most interested in.
Will it take me another 2 years to feel like my energy is back fully, will it take longer, how many Unexpected Challenges are ahead of me to kick me in the pants and knock me back a few steps, will I progress even faster than in the past many months? Lots of questions, all I know is that today is an experiment, today is Challenging, and it’s just awesome to be here tackling it.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
