I guess I am a runner

Hi Everyone

Well went back to work last week on Saturday and the hospital is very busy, so long days. My blood count had come up on the weekend, and was high enough to get the flu shot. They say your ANC needs to be 1000, I wanted to make sure mine was higher than that, to make sure it worked on me. So it was up to 2000. I had the H1N1 on Monday, but will let my immune system work on that for a week or so, and then get the seasonal flu vaccine. Hospital workers have gotten the vaccine earlier than others, I guess because we are working with sick people, and possibly passing things on to people whose immunity is down. I was thinking about it and also I guess if there were a major epidemic it would be pretty bad if all the hospital workers were off sick.

I went for a 2 mile run in the pouring rain today, so that (I guess) means I am a runner. First run in a very long time, so it felt great. I did change into dry clothes immediately .

Taking on a full hospital of patients is kind of hard in that I have basically been off for almost 8 months, (except for working a few days here and there) so Ken is working with me.

In fact we do pretty much everything together these days. It really works well, we both enjoy work more when we are both there anyways.

I have a followup with my surgeon next week, and am going through in my mind what I will tell her.  My gastrointestinal tract is clearly changed. I have a lot of abdominal pain that I did not have in the past, but it seems to be related to gas, I figure it is just par for the course having had radiation to the area. If I eat vegetables I tend to get diarrhea, not that that is going to stop me from eating vegetables. I think if I were not a vegetarian, it would not be as big of an issue.  Of course with the diarrhea there is more urgency .... getting to the bathroom.  I think that it will just take some time to sort out and learn how to "deal with" this new body. The way I am looking at it is that we all have different gastrointestinal issues, that we learn to live with. It took years for me to realize that I just could not eat spicy foods, and which ones in particular to avoid. I just have to "experiment" with this new GI tract.  I think it is just not quite as flexible as the old one.   

I guess personally now that I have "some" hair, I tend to forget that there is anything different about me at all. In the past 2 days, 2 different people have said to Ken " How is Janet?" and I was standing right next to him and they did not recognize me. I have decided that I am "in cognito" these days. I guess going from long blond hair to spiky white(clear) hair with a VERY dark base is a bit of stretch.  I have had several people tell me how much they like my "unique" hairdo. I have proceeded to tell them just how "expensive" it is to get this kind of "cut".

I will have to get Ken to take a picture........so we can look back years from now at each and every hair phase I have been through :)

love

Janet

jankenb @ gmail.com