Bonnie Recovery

FINISHED!

I flew from NC to Cambridge yesterday.  Daniel felt he needed more time to get our houses ready for summer rentals, but he did not want me to miss my last session of Group Spiritual direction Thursday am.  He suggested that I fly back to Cambridge, and I eagerly took him up on the suggestion.  I have been in my house robe all day, diligently attacking the last two of my writings in order to graduate.  I'm pleased to announce that I am FINISHED.  I have completed all my graduate requirements, and I'm looking forward to wearing that funny hat next Thursday. 

We had a great time in NC.  I'll post some pictures from Abigale's first birthday party.  She had a ball.  She is such a little ham; she loved all the attention.  Both Zac and Luc cried when we sang Happy Birthday on their first BD.  All that staring at them drove them to tears.  Ms Abigirl on the other hand loved everyone looking at her.  She smiled and waved and tried to join in the singing.  More on this topic later when I have pics to show.

When we actually looked at our summer rental reservations we learned that the house we are moving into is available on Aug 17th and we were able to move Sept renters so that we take possession for nine months beginning on that day.  This has led us to change our travel plans a bit.  We had expected to do our BBQ tour of Texas the second half of August.  Now it looks like we will be in Texas the first two weeks of August and will fly to CA for the Interval reunion and to see CA friends and family in the middle of September.  Melanie recently wrote that Houston was 68 degrees on Cinco de Mayo.  I didn't know it was EVER 68 degrees!  I remember it being in the 70's even in the winter.  (See Melanie's comments about Texans being ambivalent about Cinco de Mayo in her post under the comment called "Home Again in NC."  "Home Again in NC" initiated a great conversation about parents driving and parents driving us crazy.  The url directly to that conversation is:  http://stillthinking.typepad.com/bonnie_recovery/2008/04/home-again-in-n.html).

I expect it will be 98/98 (degrees and humidity) when we are in Texas.  Ugh.  But it will be great to see all of our friends.  I'll be writing Texas friends again to find out what your early August travel plans are.  Daniel and I plan to leave Cambridge as soon as we can; we have to vacate our apartment before July 31.  We hope to be out by the middle of July and travel to Texas via Chicago and Colorado.  Oh, Texas friends, look for email from me about our revised travel plans.

And speaking of Texas friends, Betsy posted a message as a comment on that same "Home Again in NC" conversation that you might miss.  She says:

Hi All, It's Betsy. For 9 months I've been working to get credentialed to work on military bases with all the post traumatic stress vets and families you hear about. It has been mired and I'd about given up. Having spent the last week co-ordinating an extraordinary international conference on Integrative Oncology....I got the call YESTERDAY that they want me SATURDAY....yes THIS SATURDAY in Fort Bliss?????? Texas outside El Paso. I said "yes"....... I'v been gone past 10 days with conference....now I madly pull my life together to go to a place I don't know, reporting to people I don't know, doing what I don't know. "Mom is on the way back burner"......

I leave Saturday for Texas. If anyone knows El Paso or anyone there or anything else let me know. Or send prayers. I will do all I can to be present and listen and let god work! blesings to all, betsy

Betsy, I will definitely keep you in my prayers.  I'd love you to post anything you have from your Oncology conference.  If you email it to me, I'll make a regular post of it to which people can comment.  I don't know anyone around El Paso, but suspect that others here do.

I am thinking of changing the BLOG program I've been using in September.  I will be "graduated" from two years of post transplant illnesses by then and expect (she said foolishly) to be a "well woman."  We have much to discuss about illness, medical practice,Texas and stuff.  I'm looking for a program that allows more interactivity, with everyone able to post original messages and not simply comment on messages initiated by Daniel or me.  I know that Daniel will be able to find a good program, but we'd both appreciate any suggestions you have.

Bonnie for BanD

The Donor!

Yes, Abigale is definitely growing up.  She is officially one year old today.  Her mom jumped the gun a bit by turning her car seat around to face forward a week or so ago.  She loves looking at Mom now.  She has had her first pedicure; check out those toes.  I have pictures from the birthday party that I will put in as an album as soon as I find a USB cord that has that small connector at one end.

The big news for me today was that I got an email from the man who donated stem cells to me.  My donor's name is Jay.  I have invited him to the website and so you may be seeing comments from him here.  He is 37 years old and lives in MO.  I told him in an email about how powerful his stem cells are.  They wiped out my leukemia in about two week.  I saw Dr. Cutler today and he confirms that the possibility of my having a relapse now is very remote.  I also told Jay that my body hasn't been all that welcoming of his cells.  The graft and the host (me) have been in a battle for almost two years not.  It seems that they (we) are achieving some peace.  Cutler does not think I have any graft-vs-host now.  When I get to September the danger will be mostly past though I will never be completely out of danger.

It is easy to get on the donor list with only a blood test.  But if you are the one in a hundred thousand who is a match, the donation process is anything but trivial.   The usual process is to get injections for a week or two to increase your stem cell count.  Then there is a "harvesting" which is like dialysis.  They pump your blood out of one arm and remove stem cells from it and return the blood to the other arm.  Like dialysis it isn't particularly painful, but it is not in any way pleasant.  I'll let you know what Jay had to do, or maybe he will post his experience here.

Daniel has just about finished all the final work on the houses in NC.  He worked with our rental agency to get rentals starting Saturday (we had them blocked until Memorial Day).  Income is good.  He has been working around the clock.  I hope he will get some sleep before starting the drive home tomorrow.  Please keep his travels in your prayers.

Did you notice that I found a way to put a monthly archive in the left column of the blog?  I wish that it popped up a calendar for the month you choose like the current month is displayed in the sidebar.  Instead it simply takes you to the posts for the month you choose with the last posting presented first.  I still intend to complete the job I started called "pre-transplant blog history"  by bringing it up to date.  Clicking on a month in the blog history takes you to a word doc where I have summarized what was happening that month and included links to all the individual postings.

Tomorrow I'm off to do more shopping.  Yesterday I bought a dress, yes a dress, for the garden party next Wed.  I also bought at SKIRT to wear to graduation. I was happy to see that a size 16 was far too big for me. These are the first skirts I've owned since we lost all our stuff in the fire.  I replaced the business wardrobe I shipped from Palo Alto with a most utilitarian, slacks only wardrobe from Lands End.  I supplemented that with PJs for the hospital.   

I'm thinking about some girl shoes, but that is probably a bridge too far for me.  I think I have some nice flats that will do fine with the skirts.

Love to you all, 
Bonnie for BanD

Graduation

Tomorrow is official graduation day though the festivities start at 5pm today.  Daniel's Mom and Sis, Margery and Bev, are here. 

Here is your invitation:

Download graduate_invite.pdf

The highlight of the week I believe will be the Commencement Eucharist today at 5pm.  (Not the actual graduation tomorrow that tends to be long and boring.)  The Eucharist will be webcast.  Join us for all or part of it if you can.  Here are instructions for logging on:

Go to http://eds.acrobat.com/demo
and LOG IN as GUEST.
You will be prompted to type your name.

A new window will open enabling you to see the Chapel and participate at a distance.

The person who arranged this suggests that you log in at 4:45 for the 5pm service.  If you do, you'll get to see a crowd of people looking for seats.  I suggest that you may want to login about 5:20 or so to catch Bishop Charles' sermon.  He is one of the country's finest preachers.  He too is leaving EDS (for San Francisco); I expect it will be a fine sermon. 

Here is the order of worship:

Song of  Praise:  H379 "God is Love"
Wisdom 7:26-8:1
Psalm 13 9:1-17
I Peter 2:2-10
Sequence Hymn:  Will You Come and Follow Me
Gospel: Mark 6:7-13
Offertory Hymn: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky
Sanctus: Iona
Sermon
Communion Hymn: Peace Before Us

My friend Mary who graduated last year just called to tell me what a miracle it is that I am alive and able to graduate. Thank you for the love and prayers that made this graduation possible.

Bonnie for BanD 

Graduated!

Now it is really finished.   Wednesday evening we celebrated with a commencement Eucharist followed by a garden party on the lawn outside the chapel.  Bishop Charles is retiring this month.  He gave a fine finale sermon and a ten minute blessing.  It was web cast.  I'm looking into how to get a video copy of it.   

This is the fourth graduation I've attended and I think it was by far the best.  I might think this because it is the one where my family and friends were here; others agree that it was the best they have attended.  Everything ran smoothly.  The food and flowers were spectacular.  Neither church nor chapel were too hot.  We have a new sound system so that even those of us who don't hear well could hear everything. We honored NBA star Kevin Johnson for his humanitarian work.  Here is a link to the EDS site with commencement pictures.  EDS Commencement 2008

The event was so much more than these comforts.  There was a lively spirit and spirituality to the event.  EDS is changing.  We will be sharing some of our buildings with Leslie University beginning next year.  EDS is doing more online education and has less need for dormitories.  Everyone was aware that this is the last year for EDS as we have known it.    Bishop Charles and the faculty have done fine job of establishing EDS as a solid educational environment in a time when all seminaries are challenged.  We were celebrating success at the same time as anticipating change.

IT has been great having Daniel's Mom and Sis here.  It made this graduation much more meaningful to me.

Both the garden party and the reception following the graduation service were times for catching up with friends.  With me here are Susan Langle, Sue Crommelin, and Katherine Styles.  We are four of the six people in our spiritual direction group last year.  Mary Wetzel and BJ Hipsher could not make it to graduation; they were greatly missed.

Here I am in my graduation gear.  Daniel took this picture as a remembrance that we have lived at 15 St. John Rd. 15 is the chapter in St. John's gospel where Jesus instructs us to "Love One Another."  15 St. John has been an amazing place for us to live.

The graduation celebration yesterday was wonderful.  I got a standing ovation when I picked up my diploma.  I felt my colleagues and teachers were celebrating the miracle that God has brought in my life.  Certainly I have been the student least likely to graduate.   

I wish all of your could have been here for this wonderful celebration.

Bonnie for BandD

Bonnie - what an amazing woman - ready to move again.

Every once in a while you look at the person you are around the most ... and you realize you barely know them, or what new thing they will spring out next. 

Oh yes, you know what their hands look like and you could spot them walking across Grand Central Station's Concourse, but the spark, the creative essence that they are...   The one who uses those hands, and who makes up the cosmic jokes about who or how we are - the one you really love - that one -- you have only glimpsed their contrail. 

At least it that is how it is for me:  It is virtually impossible to go to sleep to one's life when connected with Bonnie.  She is always re-inventing herself.  She is always Bonnie, and in no two years is she the same Bonnie. 

I have been fixing PCs and A/Cs and lugging stuff in and out of the storage area - very busy and asleep to the cosmos.  The wake-up-to-life-moment happened yesterday.  It came in the lull just after a call from our next door neighbor in North Carolina.  He had intercepted a man trying to get into our house through the back screen door - he claimed he had come to "to change the locks".  It slowly dawned on us that we had better file a police report.  More on that adventure, later.

But the wake-up-and-see-your-life-moment had nothing to do with outside threats or with action items.  It was glimpsing the re-invention of self and circumstance that Bonnie is doing all the time.

Bonnie has been fighting a cold, which can become an adventure for us:  Last month Bonnie's cold turned quickly to pneumonia with a 103 fever.  She landed back in BWH  hospital on intravenous antibiotics.  Bonnie has been having odd pulsations, palpitations and tiredness, and her mouth sores have returned, and there is a ringing in her ears as she has come almost all the way off of her anti-immune drugs. 

So, we were resting mid-day on our bed, looking out at the new leaves on the trees we are about to leave behind.....