Mid-May 2012

Hello everyone. Hope you are doing well. Thanks to all of you for reading my blog. I appreciate it very much! Just wanted to give you an update on how things are going. Honestly-most of it is the same. I continue to exercise, (try to) eat well, sleep enough, take vitamins and herbs, stretch-I have not done yoga or acupuncture in awhile-and I need to follow up with both of those! Today, I have some cuts/bruises on my arms-from gardening, which I love! I think I may be getting a mouth sore, which I haven't had in quite a while. They suck, don't they! Yuck! I feel for you who know what I'm talking about. They are like the size of miniature craters :) Anyway, I used the magic mouthwash that I had gotten from the hospital last month-forgot I had it-and wow-I think it may go away! We'll see. My bone pain is between mild and moderate, as long as I stay on the pain meds :( If I do forgot to take it, the pain jumps up the scale. I am holding on at only 2 pills/day though! Down from before, so that's good. That's it for today. Thanks again for reading and have a wonderful day! Take care of yourselves, Kat

Neutropenia....Still Doing Well & You Don't Define Me

Hi everyone, Hope you are all doing well. I have still been feeling good. (Knock on wood-right!) I still have the every day bone pain-but the pain meds are helping with that. If I forget to take one, I remember why I take the pain meds. Ouch! I am continuing my regimen: exercise, eating well (Most days!), vitamins, stretching, herbs in my protein smoothies, and enough sleep. I also don't feel that I get stressed as easily since I have been home from the hospital. I guess thinking you could be near the end puts everything else in perspective :) Last week, I took a class. We discussed our inner critic and why we couldn't write about certain things. Anyway, it eye-opening for me. One, I am not very good to myself and I need to change that! Second, I starting talking to the 'neutropenia' like it was a person. Wow! I finally said-Neutropenia You do not define me. I get to define me. Neutropenia may be part of my body and it certainly has the capacity to bring me down-but it does not define who I am! My family, friends, my interests and passions help define who I am. While I am passionate about helping others with neutropenia and advocating for their health care-I am not passionate about the condition itself. As you know, the condition sucks. One day you feel fine and before you know it-you feel like crap for no reason other than your body cannot handle all the germs and bacteria it comes into contact with every day-not to mention your own bacteria/germs in your body. Sometimes, Neutropenia sucks. But, I do hope you find an inner peace so that you can enjoy life-a quality life-and not worry about it all the time. That is my wish for all of you. Have a wonderful day! Kat