GRATITUDES:
1. Another beautiful day of life
2. My husband and kids
3. Being able to sit on our back patio with my coffee in the morning
4. Our three big oak trees
5. My little sycamore sapling, which is finally putting on some height and girth after being in the ground for nearly seven years

YIPE. I haven’t posted in a few days but it’s been a bit busy around here, not to mention that I now have two teens at home who are taking it in turn to nick my iPad, the only device I use for blog entries. My phone is just too darn small and the computer in the office is overkill. Yeah, I know – first world problems.😉

So… change seems to be in the air. I saw a BMT specialist yesterday for the first time and received more info than I could possibly digest in one sitting, but the upshot is that I guess I’m now on track for a bone marrow transplant (or BMT, which you’ve probably already figured out). I’ll begin the preliminary screening on June 8th, when I’ll go back to the clinic, which is right next to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, and the techs will check my lung capacity, heart, administer a chest x-ray, and one more test that I can’t think of offhand. I’ll be poked, prodded and peered at for the better part of a full day but that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I’ve become used to being under a microscope! Meanwhile, my info will be entered into the national donor database to search for a match. I thought at first that my sister would be the best candidate but I was told that younger donors are usually preferred. (Sorry, Roni!❤️❤️) Still, with 35 million donors in the database, a match should pop up soon. Fortunately, because of my genetic background, I stand about a 70% chance of a successful match. I’ll take those odds!

I seem to be in good hands with my new doctor. I won’t be saying goodbye to Dr. Santiago, but Dr. Bachier has now been handed the controls and will be steering this crazy train for a while. Apparently both doctors have known each other since they began med school in Puerto Rico and they’re good friends as well as colleagues. Dr. Bachier is also very warm, kind and very pleasant, not to mention that he explains things VERY thoroughly, even better than Dr. Santiago, who sometimes gets lost on tangients while in the middle of some explanation. (I’ll admit, I’ve sometimes contributed to these tangients.😆)

My kid got her very first summer job!❤️ Lauren went in for an interview at our local Jason’s Deli this morning and was hired by the afternoon. She’ll start work tomorrow night – her first shift is 5-10pm, when the restaurant closes, and I’m pretty sure that she won’t be able to clock out until at least 10:30. It’ll be a late night for her as well as one of us, because she doesn’t yet have her license and we’ll have to provide transportation. Thank goodness the restaurant isn’t far away and we can get there in 10 minutes or less.😊