Dana-Farber checkup

Three years, four months, 11 days.

Dr. Alyea read from the computer the time since my transplant. He does that occasionally, and after he read it at my checkup on Monday, he pronounced me "doing great."

Actually I know how long it is, because I sometimes count the time, although not up to the number of days. Mentally turning my life into a Broadway show, after the visit I hummed the song "Seasons of Love" from "Rent" and tried to fit my time-line into the words of the cast singing "the measure of a year": Five hundred twenty-five-thousand six hundred minutes.

"Three years, four months, 11 days" doesn't exactly fit, but I've been singing it anyway.

Of course I'm not in a Broadway, but I was videotaped Monday by a cameraman from NESN for a TV spot to run during the Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon Aug. 21-22. He shot me getting my vitals taken and then going into a room and being greeted by Dr. Alyea.

It was no big deal, but it made me nervous, and my blood pressure shot up. After vitals, they followed me to an exam room. They were waiting by the door when Dr. Alyea came in, shook my hand, gave me a big smile and asked how I was doing. But they needed to get the shot from inside the room, so he had to reverse and do it again. They filmed while we were talking...not about my health but about Rafael Nadal's victory at the French Open, which I had seen at 7 a.m.

Then they left, and he pulled my counts up on the screen. Everything is fine: hematocrit and white blood count normal and platelets still pokey but stable in the 80s. Liver enzymes are still elevated, which means I stay on 5 mg. of prednisone.

I mentioned that I had lost weight, and he checked it out on the screen and saw that I had. He said if you lose weight and your blood counts are fine, there's nothing to worry about except for maybe needing to eat more, especially since I exercise so much.

So he said I should keep a calorie count for two weeks and e-mail it to him to make sure I did it. Calorie count? I never even think about calories, and until I looked it up, I had no idea what my daily intake should be. I hope this doesn't sound obnoxious to those who struggle with their weight. I've had my share of problems, but I have my father's build, and other than a few pounds here and there, weight has never been an issue.

So...I kept track of yesterday and today and sure enough, yesterday I was below my goal until Katie came home with ice cream for me. Today I was below also, but I'm sitting here eating cookies, which will probably push it over.

You don't want to fill up on junk food – probably a protein shake would do the trick – but it is a good excuse.

Cape Cod mini-vacation

Wheeeeeee! Vacation is fun!!!!!!

The harbor in Wellfleet. We walked along a path that you

can't see in the photo.

We had three great days on our mini-vacation to Cape Cod.

Blue skies and warm sun greeted us in Wellfleet and stayed with us during our stay. A rainy front was kind enough to wait until we got home, where it is now pouring. We walked on the beach, skipped stones, swam at the bay, ate ice cream and had dinner outside at The Beachcomber, a waterfront restaurant and one of our favorite places. (Melissa, my nurse practitioner, had given me permission to order fish and chips because we could assume it would be cooked at high heat.)

Ben, Katie and Joe outside The Beachcomber.

We also had time to hang around and read the newspaper and make some headway in our books. I followed through on my assignment to eat salty snacks and drink liquids with salt in them, in hopes of raising my sodium level. Thursday I got my blood checked at a lab on the Cape, and the results on Friday showed my levels had improved. I guess that means I have to keep eating potato chips.

Katie and me at one of our favorite bay beaches, South Sunken

Meadow in Eastham, one town west of Wellfleet.

On the way home, we listened to the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, a fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It was great to hear my doctor, Edwin P. Alyea, along with a patient who like me had more than one transplant. We were listening to interviews with survivors and family members when I heard a man speaking and said to myself, "Hmmmm, that sounds like Dr. Alyea." (I hadn't heard them introduce him or the patient.) My ears really perked up when host Glen Ordway said in response to something the patient said, "Well, Ted, what do you think of that?" Dr. Alyea sounded terrific.

Now, alas, we must do laundry and get ready for school. Joe leaves Sunday for Bates. This will be hard for me, but the time has come. Katie starts her senior year of high school on Tuesday. Yikes. Thank goodness for Maddie.