Preparing for Freedom

Things are going very here in isolation world. My blood counts continue to be strong, appitite is improving and other body functions are returning into the normal zone. I am doing so well the doctors are planning to probably remove my Hickman line today and to send me home tomorrow afternoon. The only issue is they need to find an oral antiboitic to replace the IV one which is fighting the blood bug war against pnemonia. I am almost in a daze at the speed of the recovery from a pretty horrible situation only four days ago.

The convalesence program is pretty long post treatment, it will take me at least three months to build up basic immunity and fitness before returning to some form of working. Not knowing what I will do on return is interesting so I will need to make a plan for that. Ideally some gentle problem fixing/internal consultancy will take me from September to the end of the year before a "proper job" with travelling etc comes up some time after January next year. I will be on significant medications to support the transplant until the end of this year and will need to avoid lots of travel and specially overnight returns from the USA in coach, my previous torture.

Once I get out of hospital I will start the dialogue with the team at Gore on possible short term projects and longer term solid contributions to the enterprise. That should be fun as I enjoy new challenges and opportunities.

In the short term I will need to get a gentle program of exercise and other mental activities to go along with my cooking hobby to prevent "post trauma" syndrome. Apparently a lot of folks who go through this kind of emotional roller coaster find it difficult to adjust back into normal life and have enthuasium for all the usual small challenges of daily life, even Lance Armstrong lay around the house for a few months before he kicked himself into gear so I think this will be a challenge for me as well.

The doctors are not going to do any more scans for about three months but I should have a clear scan under my belt before returning to work, the chance of the cancer still being present is less than 10 percent but I would be pleased to get that reinforcement. After that its just annual check ups and fingers crossed.

I am hoping to take a bit of vacation time in August with the family, we are working through options but our favourite idea is to hire a camper van and potter off to Europe for a few weeks, by then my immune system should be stable enough to leave the umbilical cord to the Western General here in edinburgh. Once I get out I will be on four times a week visits/ transfusions/ samples/ medications/ consultations to the hospital - I should set up a frequent flyer program for the hospital patients, ideas for prizes welcome in the comments section!

So all going well today, once I am out the blog will drop down to something like a once every few days moving to once every week updates. Many thanks to all of you for the comments, emails, calls and visits they really made the days in isolation much more bearable.

Cheers

Gerry