'memba me?

Look at the date!
August 2, 2018
Three years since my last post and FIVE years today since my transplant surgery.
A lot of water over the dam since my last post but this blog continues to fulfill it's mission statement by letting family and friends know what's up and so here we go.............

As I’ve mentioned many times,This transplant thing is fluid.
It’s a road.
It’s a journey.

At times the road has had some crazy bumps in it other times it’s fairly smooth sailing... definitely smoother than dealing with the basket of troubles I had in my last days as a full-blown diabetic that were destined to put me in an early grave.
The confines of time, space, and the parameters of TMI, will keep me reigned in to saying that over the past five years Recovery Road has always been a work in progress. I have not stayed on the same immunosuppressant drugs for any great length of time because for one reason or another, they have all disagreed with my system and and several brought about some particularly undesirable side effects. A while back they started me on infusions of a drug called Belatacept .
Once, every 28 days, I would go to the hospital and they would weigh me, mix the drug and then I would receive it via IV. The whole process taking about three hours and although a bit cumbersome to take time out of life, drive to Harrisburg, and do this, it was this drug therapy that had the least amount of nasty side effects with. The downside was that it was more than $1500 every 28 days. Ugh

Since then, I have pretty much exhausted the class of immunosuppressants that I need to be on. Currently I’m on a drug called Everolimus that is really wreaking havoc with my internal system and I’m working to have something or other changed.
Brightest side of this coin is that Dr. Yang and his staff all tell me that my “grafts” as the transplanted organs are called, are working absolutely wonderfully! Woo Hoo!

For this I am very grateful.

Speaking of being grateful, The origin and nuclear center of my gratitude begins with my donor and his family.
As I’ve mentioned in the posts here once or twice, I made contact with them shortly after my TX and stayed in touch with them semi-anonymously via mail through and channels of the gift of life organization. That was until February of this year when I received a note from Pinnacle saying that my donor family would like to make contact with me. Gift of Life sent me a release form that I signed, dated and sent back and within a week I got a call from my donor's mother and that night we talked for two hours and 40 minutes about everything. She told me all about her son - my donor,, their family, and their unselfish belief of making good out of the very worst of times. It was evident that even without any of the above mentioned ties… I would certainly have chosen to be friends with these people. I spoke to my donor‘s father and found their family to be very, very, loving people.
It’s so happens that my donor, Cecil, has a sister named Taylor who was graduating from college this spring and through our conversations the family invited me to join them at her commencement. So in May of this year almost 5 years after my transplant, I got to meet the wonderful family who gave me the quintessential “gift of life.”
I was invited to join their family/extended family for a celebratory dinner at a great restaurant in Baltimore's Inner Harbor where I met almost two dozen members of family and closest friends. It was a fantastic, fabulous day! These people made me feel like a rock-star and I was so humbled by their love, their interest, and their genuine concern.
Driving home that day, I posed the question to myself “Just how lucky can one transplant recipient be?“ I love these people, I will be eternally connected with them. I hope to be a part of their lives and have them a part of mine for all my days remaining.

So this has been the biggest news of the past three years and it just happened within the last several months. Other than that, I am still kicking. I have been blessed with many, many wonderful things since 8/2/2013.
My oldest son Travis, got married to a beautiful girl named Sabrina and since then, they have had two gorgeous young girls. My daughter Kara, is living the dream and exploring the mid west of the US, making me green with envy as she hikes, bikes and explores some of the most beautiful land in our country. Nick my youngest son, is well, lives nearby and works in the IT department at a local high school.
My dad and my brother are both doing well and it just all adds up to me being very, very blessed.

I thank you for checking in here, I can’t promise to make posts as regularly as I once did because the news isn’t all that exciting but if anything big comes along you’ll be sure to be able to read about it here.
Thanks once again for your friendship and concern.
Enjoy each day!
The very best to you all!

Some joyous moments from the past five years that would not have been possible without the Gift of Life.

Day One Post TX

My wonderful donor family - Cecil, Taylor and Andrea

My Donor Cecil

Modern Day Bob