Slight change of plans... Went to the clinic today and apparently my hopes of getting my Hickman line out early were a tease. I kinda felt it was premature but my P.A. Kerry likes to be Mr. Sunshine I guess and got me all excited for nothing. After consulting with my transplant doc, Dr. Holmberg, she wants to wait and let my Oncologist Dr. Shustov make the call when she transfers my care over to him. They're just being cautious as I've been having pain in my chest/back not to mention having the palpable node still under my left arm. Kerry probed it today and told me he isn't worried about it as it's "mobile" and very small. In other words, he said if it was cancerous, it wouldn't be movable and probably much larger. My skeptical side said "well, it's only been 27 days so these conditions could still develop right? In addition, they can't explain the pain in my chest except to say it's probably scar tissue. Again the only true determinent will be a PET scan. That said, they may do a preliminary CT scan in a couple of weeks to see if anything has gotten larger in there. At this point, and for a while now, I'm just kinda numb to the whole thing. I mean, there's nothing I can do but wait. I'm eating anti-inflammatory diet, keeping my stress low, starting to work out, meditating/praying, what else can I possibly do?! I just need to live my life and understand this is out of my control.

Speaking of living my life, I'm glad to say that my appetite is back in full swing! They weighed me today and I've gained 3 pounds (up to around 168 from 165)! Better yet, I think my taste buds are starting to grow back as well. I just stunk up Jackies house by roasting a glove of garlic in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and spread it onto a slice of 4 cheese sourdough bread (which I browned in the garlic infused olive oil in the pan). It was delicious! Also had some Green Curry Thai food today for lunch from this new place I discovered in West Seattle. It was the best Green Curry I've ever had as they used red pepper, shitake mushrooms, chicken, slivered zucchini, carrots, etc... The best part of it was the brown rice. It was almost like they grew the rice themselves as it was almost dark brown, not faded brown like most brown rices I've tried. I feel like me and good food are long lost friends and I'm so happy to have you back my friend! I'll never ever take eating well for granted that's for sure.

So it looks like this weekend Jack and I will be doing the majority of move into my storage unit (and into her place). My place is in shambles right now but have been making progress dropping off car loads every night to my unit. I took tonight off as my back was killing me (either from disease or general soreness). The only daunting items I have are my dresser and televisions which are both heavy. Believe it or not, my couch is very light as it's made from polymer instead of wood (Pier One!). I'm at the point now where all I need to do is put everything left in boxes and carry it out to the car or truck. I think I'll rent the truck next weekend and be done with it. I feel bad as Chili will no longer have a backyard to run around in. Thankfully, there's a nice park two blocks down where she can run till she drops (or my arm falls off from throwing fetch balls)! I think the change is going to do everyone good though and really looking forward to it. For some reason (well, for many reasons) I don't feel welcome at my current apartment and the worst feeling is feeling unwanted. I can feel good about myself however as the place didn't have a kitchen when I moved in and built one for my landlord at no charge. The place is in way better condition than when I moved in and can feel proud of that. Here's a couple of pics, I'll miss the view...