Day + 199

Happy Mother's Day Mom, Sonia, Josie, Paulina, Trina and anyone else I may have missed. Can't wait to get over to the Phoenix Club and celebrate in style.

Well I can't say a whole lot has happened since my last message except more soreness from my push back into the world of exercise. This time I decided it was time to get back out on the open road and take Floyd on the running trail I used to do before I got sick. It was an odd feeling knowing that I hadn't done that since my diagnosis. Those are the things you don't think will really resonate but they do. Just sitting there putting my running shoes back on, Floyd in one hand and iPod in the other and running in the open air again...I don't know, it just gave me a very weird feeling. You try not to think about it very often, but it's the little things like that that make you realize you lost a full year of your life to this illness. It's actually not fair to say lost because believe it or not, some very good things have come out of this, so lost probably isn't the right word, but I think you get the picture. Anyway, it was an unbelievable run with Floyd and again, I paid for it dearly for days. In fact I was hoping to try to get out again this morning for run number 2, but no can do. Floyd will have to settle for a walk. I'm still way too sore.

On the medical side of things my counts actually got better week over week which says a lot because my counts last week were the best they have been since this started. I can only hope that things continue to trend this way. My immune system is the strongest it has been since diagnosis and my hematocrit is slowly rising to the point where I am approaching the norm. I couldn't be happier with this as well as my doctors. I can't say that has translated over to how I actually feel, but I'd rather feel bad and have great counts than feel good and have my counts in the toilet. Mornings are definitely the worst to deal with then I can only hope things get better from there. Sometimes they do and sometimes I'm stuck with it all day. Those are the days that really get to me mentally, but that's when I have to try my hardest to stay on point and remember that things could be a hell of a lot worse in my world. I try to keep the mortality thoughts out of my mind as much as possible, but every now and then I have to remind myself that there are people dying every day from this disease, and I am one of the blessed, lucky, fortunate, whatever you want to call it, ones who has been given a second chance. You'd think that is enough to pull yourself out of it. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but the bottom line is I am here, living, breathing and most of the time smiling...and things ARE getting better.

That's about it for today. If you guys have any time, check out the link below. It will take you to a team in training website where people are doing 200 mile + bike rides for the sake of finding a cure for blood diseases like mine. Pretty amazing stuff. Any help or support you can throw their way would be really appreciated by everyone involved.

Take care everyone and again, happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there.


http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/ambbr09/jmagee