Mr. Sicky

This will be short.  I'm now on my 3rd bout with pneumonia in 2 months!  My lungs have been a weak point since childhood, allowing colds to become bronchitis, then pneumonia, rather quickly.  Unfortunately, the z-pak the Dr gave me didn't seem to phase it this 3rd time.  Of course my situation worsened last Sunday evening, while we had my niece, nephew and their 4 daughters visiting for the long weekend.  Dale had gotten the flu the day before they came, so she stayed hidden away in her room for the entire weekend.  Sorry Kim, Nick, Courtney, Jocelyn, Lauren and Tess.  Thank you Hillary for carrying the load.  So Dr Malone is in Death Valley for a 200 mile bike race, but thank heaven for Dr Lewis who was on call.  All the local pharmacies were closed.  The 24 hr Walgreen's in Atascadero (30 mins away) was closed because the pharmacist was out sick!  Dr Lewis was willing to meet someone at his office in San Luis after his family gathering, so poor Darrell had to drive the 50 miles to meet him around 9 pm to get me the new and improved drug, Cipro.  Thanks Darrell.

The worst part of it was that I was having to cough so often and hard that it was causing terrible spasms in my sides, ribs, abdomen, lower back and chest.  Usually the spasms would be in one or two spots, and would go away after a minute or two.  A couple of times they all went spastic on me, for several minutes.  Reminded me of the good ol' days of the spasms due to my collapsed vertebra, and probably just about as painful.  Thank heaven its improved to just 1 or 2 areas, 3 or 4 times a day. 

The good news.  I've lost 8 pounds so far.  The bad news.  Tonight we were supposed to go watch our friends Liz Adams and her daughter Bailey, Carrie Ham and her daughter Macey, perform in a local production of Annie.  It's the last weekend too, so we're out of luck.  Tomorrow was supposed to be an extra special day.  One of the young ladies that attended our Muppet movie night, Rebecca Pechon, had asked me to baptize her on her birthday in May.  I told her that I thought that was too long of a wait.  2 weeks ago she asked me if I would do it on my birthday, to make it special for both of us.  What a sweetie.  Now, I'm too ill.  I spoke with her yesterday and told her I couldn't do it.  I so proud that she's going ahead with it and, giving a young man in our Ward, Cody Murdock, who recently received his mission call to the El Salvador San Salvador Mission, the opportunity to perform the baptism.  Way to go Becca!  Tomorrow was also supposed to be a joint birthday party for me and the King tripletts.  I know, I know.  Stay home.  Get your rest, 'cus if you don't have your health, you don't have anything.

Well, so much for the short post.  Hopefully I'll have some good news after my March 2nd appointment with my local oncologist (which, by the way, IS the 1 yr anniversary of my stem cell transplant & "2nd birthday"), followed by my visit to UCSF with Drs Wolf and Burch on the 8th.  At least I'm way ahead of where I was a year ago, and for that I'm truly grateful.  Thanks for your continued support and prayers.  We love you guys.