My leukemia's back.

[3goodeggs]

He looks happy.
You might have a fishing partner.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

He looks happy.
You might have a fishing partner.

Yeah...I'm working on taking his brother soon...he's a leukemia survivor also.

 

[Blooie]

I'm glad I got the stuff done that I wanted to in the coop and run yesterday. It's nice and fresh in there again. Got a winter advisory for today and tomorrow. I guess that means they've advised us that it's winter.

Cold front moving in with snow in the forecast. Well, DUH - it's Wyoming!!

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Glad you got your stuff done Blooie....wish we would get a storm.
Just want one of those lazy days...without the guilt....:/

 

[Blooie]

I don't much like being idle either, Phil. I sit down for a few and then start thinking of all the things I could (or should) be doing and jump back up. <sigh> Kendra keeps me so busy during the week with cathing, therapy, school, and helping her that on weekends I feel like I spent the week getting wound up and now can't unwind. Today Ken has some meetings in Cody to go over tax stuff for the lodges and I'm going with him. When he's done we'll pick up chicken food and make a Walmart stop, then grab a bite to eat. I'm taking my quilt with me so I have something to do while he and the guys figure out IEN's and 501Cs......seems a couple of the chapters didn't get theirs in like they were supposed to or some such. All I know about taxes is that some folks get checks, some write them. So I have nothing worthy to add to their conversation. At first I thought to just drop him off at the Lodge building and pick up the stuff we need while they figured stuff out, but fortunately that urge passed and I opted for some "me" time. I can quilt without guilt!

It was nice to finish up in the coop/run yesterday. After a few weeks of giving it a "lick and a promise" because of the temps and the old age aches and pains that come with that, seeing the fresh dried leaves and straw down, all the new straw in the nest boxes, and the cleaned out feeders and waterer was just as refreshing for me as I'm sure it was to the girls.

 

[donrae]

I'm with Blooie, there's nothing like fresh bedding in your pens to just make you feel all happy inside

Honey helped me clean out the grow-out pen yesterday. Have I mentioned how much I love how strong men are? Normally I'm decently strong for a woman my age, but since treatment I feel like such a wimp. Seriously, I load like 4 forks of wet bedding in the barrow and that's all I can move. He goes out there and piles it in, overflowing, then simply moves it to the pile and dumps it. I stand there and cheer

. Anyway.....I was down to 2 cockerels there. Moved the last two that are now big enough to hold their own in with them. I'm going to not add bedding for a few days to see if we get a little sun and dry it out. We chose a bad spot, if we clean down to far there's standing water. Live and learn, right? We were discussing pens at our next place (when I think about moving, do I dream about what my kitchen or bathroom might look like? Nope, I'm designing chicken pens

) and we're thinking a cement slab might be the way to go. Not my first choice, I like the deep litter on a dirt floor, but it would stop predators and be excellent mud management. We'll see.

Blooie--Quilt without Guilt! That could be a slogan, I love it!

 

[Blooie]

Oh, I'm a kitchen girl all the way, Rachel. We've lived in more houses than you can even imagine in our 26 years in the military and 2 moves after retirement, and I have YET to have a kitchen that I'm happy with. Happy? I'm not even resigned to the kitchens we've had, let alone happy with any of them. <sigh> We started to redo this one. We got half of it done. Half. And we still can't both be in the corner where the biddy little countertop and sink are. We've mastered the art of walking sideways in this place, and I'll bet you know that feeling since we are trailer sisters!

 

[PinkyLee]

I enjoy reading your posts. My brother is a survivor. After his diagnosis my other brother passed away from a major heart attack. This left me as the stem cell donor. After the donation he was cleared of the cancer but got a really bad side effect called graphic host disease (?). His legs are sore and scabbed from the inside out. He blames me because the doctor told him the side effect happened because I am a woman, have had a child and em over 40. This statement has ruined my relationship w my brother. Sorry just venting...

 

[Bunnylady]

I enjoy reading your posts. My brother is a survivor. After his diagnosis my other brother passed away from a major heart attack. This left me as the stem cell donor. After the donation he was cleared of the cancer but got a really bad side effect called graphic host disease (?). His legs are sore and scabbed from the inside out. He blames me because the doctor told him the side effect happened because I am a woman, have had a child and em over 40. This statement has ruined my relationship w my brother. Sorry just venting...

@PinkyLee it's called Graft-versus-Host disease, and your brother would have been at risk for it if he got cells from anybody, except an identical twin (assuming he had one). For your brother to blame you for it is just WRONG! Every time a transplant is done, there is a risk of it happening; some of the medications that are given post-transplant are aimed at reducing and controlling it. The more closely related the donor is to the recipient, the lower the risk, but if the doctors hadn't thought you were a close match, they would have used a stranger rather than you - which would have significantly increased the risk. Transplanting cells from one person to another always carries this risk, but it is done because the patient most likely wouldn't live very long otherwise. So by donating cells, you gave your brother a chance to keep living - what a pity he has tried to make you feel guilty for doing it. This issue is really between him and his doctor; it's a crying shame that it has come between you.

 

[Blooie]

Amen!!! A special little friend of mine is in the Masonic Children's hospital in Minneapolis, almost 150 days out from his bone marrow transplant to try to calm his EB.(Epidermolysis Bullosa) and he's had several episodes of GvH. Now, I know that stem cell and bone marrow transplants aren't exactly the same, but the side effect risks are the same as far as Graft v Host goes. I also know that destruction of a family is NOT one of them! I'm so sorry this has happened to you. And bless you for trying to give your brother life!

My sister is on the transplant list for a kidney. She's been waiting for a few years now. There is only Linda and me as full siblings - our others are half siblings medically, but full siblings in every way that counts. Only our half sister has passed the initial screenings so far. So it matters not where the kidney or the stem cells or bone marrow comes from - it's the closeness of the match that matters. Every single one of my siblings has been tested (sadly I was out from the get-go) and every one of us knows the risks to ourselves and to Linda. Now, that said, one of the issues she had with her daughter donating was that they shared some kind of anti-body from having their children. I wonder if that's what the doctor was referring to and your brother just picked out key phrases and neglected everything else?