July 22, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Immune System Issue

It has been four and a half months since my transplant and while I am especially grateful to have had the transplant I am having difficulties getting used to the side effects of the medications I take daily. I am very concerned over some of the things that have happened that I have no control over. Specifically my two hospital stays that I have had since my transplant. Both have been caused by my weakened immune system. I understand why I have to take the immunosuppressant and cortico steroids that I need to take daily, but the problem is that as a result I am susceptible to all kinds of bugs and infections that, under normal circumstances, my immune system would kick out of my body. That is what happened with both my parotoid gland issue and my cold that became pneumonia and led to six days in the hospital. My main concern is that this situation is delaying and/or could prevent my returning to work. I had hoped to go back to work by the middle of August, which was extremely optimistic, but now I don’t know when/if I will ever make it back.

Yesterday (Tuesday, July 21) I stopped by the Council Office where I used to work and visited with several people I used to work. It was nice to see people and to be seen as well, but it just makes me want to return to work all the more. I talked with my Scout Executive in May and he told me that the BSA was looking at a part-time professional position. He didn’t then have any real details but we talked about how that might be good for me when I return and that we would talk more about this over the summer. I wasn’t able to talk with him for any length yesterday but plan to get back to him after I see my doctor. I may have to relocate when I eventually return to work as I can’t guarantee a job at the Council I was with prior to my disability. My council and my supervisors at the time was very understanding and with the exception of the whole ‘reasonable accommodation’ concept they treated me well, but that does not guarantee a position will be available at the time I am able to return. If I can’t get ahead of this whole immune system issue, I may not be able to go back into the field with the BSA. I am sure my Doctors won’t want me camping, visiting program events with hundreds of youth and adults and training courses at council camps are all places where all kinds of bugs/viruses fester. I may have to leave the BSA and that is very frightening – I have no idea of what else I could do and don’t know how to even look for a job anymore as I’ve been with the BSA since 1988. I am seeing my nephrologist tomorrow and plan to discuss with him my return to work, as well as my whole immune system problems and if I can get my prescriptions under control.

The summer that started with Carolyn’s return from Spain in late May, followed by Kate’s Wedding in June has only about a month left. Meg returns to work for the next school year around August 19th and Carolyn returns to Ithaca for her Junior year of College. Meg and I are hoping to get to West Virginia to see her brother and sister and discuss the sale of Meg’s mothers house. We are hoping to get a couple of days of vacation on the way and are planning a couple of stops in Virginia and at Shenandoah National Park. This trip is still tentative for me until I can get the clearance from the Transplant Center. We also are planning a weekend trip with Carolyn to visit Kate & Kenny in MA and maybe all go to Providence for a Water-Fire Night. It has been a great summer, if you discount the time I was in the Hospital and recovering from the hospital and some of the oppressive heat, and hopefully this last month will be exciting as well.

July 16, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Pneumonia Recovery Continues

My pneumonia is slowly going away and I am starting to feel better. The problem is that I feel better and then I try to do something – cleaning, yard work, exercise etc…. – then I am beat for most of the rest of the day after only a short time exerting myself. I also seem to be having coughing fits on a frequent basis. My first one was very scary as it lasted almost an hour and it was very hot and I was dripping with sweat by the time it was over. As I was home alone without any transportation I kind of freaked out and called the transplant center. After explaining my problem to three different people they got me on with someone who I had seen when I had been in the hospital with pneumonia. She explained that this is part of the ending of pneumonia that I would cough up the last of the infection that is in my lungs and have to spit it out. Today (Wednesday 7/15/15) I went back to the gym for the first time and did 40 minutes on the treadmill but after that I had a coughing fit in the locker room. they Called in the staff who almost called for an ambulance. I was able to explain everything after a I got myself back under control. Today I also took my last dose of the antibiotics they sent me home from the hospital with.

Both my pneumonia and my prior issues with my parotoid gland were caused because of my suppressed immune system which is a result of the intense treatment of immunosuppressant drugs and steroids that I am taking. Currently I am on Prednisone (a corticosteroid and an immunosuppressant drug), cellcept, and prograf both of which are immunosuppressant drugs. In addition I am taking some other drugs for specific issues related to the kidney transplant but they are benign and I will eventually stop taking them soon. The main three – prednisone, cellcept and prograf – I am on for life. The reason for the immunosuppressant drugs is that my body will treat the new kidney as a foreign body that should be destroyed, like a germ you might pick up, so they need to lower the ability of my immune system to fight foreign bodies so that the new kidney takes a firmer hold. This, unfortunately, increases my susceptibility to all kinds of problems and it is what helped turn my little cold into pneumonia. So far my new kidney is performing great but so are the immunosuppressant drugs, as evidenced by my two hospital stays in the last six weeks. This is a big concern to me as I go forward with my recovery.

Despite everything that has happened, the lowered immune system and the other side effects from these drugs (shaking in my hands, weight gain, intense sweats etc…) I am still very grateful to have had this opportunity for the transplant. I am especially grateful to my wife, Meg for everything she has done to take care of me, before dialysis, while on dialysis and since dialysis and for making it possible for me to participate in the paired exchange program that got me the kidney I needed. I am also grateful to the altruistic donor, Patricia, who just wanted to donate just because she felt the need to help someone. Without her efforts, none of this would be possible. I feel so much better than I did prior to the transplant and the improvement compared to how I felt prior to dialysis is incredible. The worst feeling I had during this whole time was right before I started dialysis. Going onto dialysis was a difficult decision but in the end it gave me some semblance of a life. It made a lot of things possible that weren’t before I started dialysis, my blood pressure came down, I had more energy, but I was now kind of glued to my machine. The problem with dialysis is that it is only temporary and while many people last a fairly long time on dialysis it is, in the end, a slow death. The transplant has totally saved my life. I feel like I am a new man. I am slowly getting back strength that I have not had in years and in time hope to get back to work. I am not sure how my decreased immune system will react and if I will be able to return to work but I plan to talk with my nephrologist to see what, if anything, we can do about it.

July 7, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Not So Happy Fourth of July

So what was a cold (sore throat & runny nose) early last week became pneumonia this past weekend and I wound up in the hospital – AGAIN! Friday night I went to bed with the basic sore throat and runny nose but I did get to sleep. I woke about 1:00 AM and was in some distress and covered in sweat. By 3:00 AM I was hacking up stuff and I had a fever of 101 degrees and started to have dry heaves. By 5:00 AM Meg and I decided to go to the ER since it was pretty obvious – at least to me – that my cold had moved into my chest and I had some major pain in my lungs around my ribs.

When you drive to the ER you have a vision that they can give you a pill or a shot and everything will be fixed and you can go home – reality is not like that. I got taken in fairly quickly but then had to wait while the Kidney Doctors and the respiratory Doctors do battle to decide who is to manage my care. Then the nurse comes back to take my blood to see if my kidney function has been damaged. Blood draws never goes well for me, but after three sticks they finally have their blood to test and an IV is in me but it is only an IV of Saline since they think I’m dehydrated. Eventually they decide to give me some morphine (yeah) for the pain and an IV of an antibiotic. They also bring in a portable X-ray machine and take pictures of my chest. I also had a breathing treatment but it still hurt a lot to breath deeply. The antibiotic and the morphine start to have some impact and the pain subsides a little bit. After what seemed like waiting forever I was taken for an ultrasound of my kidney. Upon returning to the ER I was told that I did have pneumonia but that the docs were still working out who would supervise my care. I had another breathing treatment that seemed to work better this time as my pain had subsided (thank you morphine!). It was finally decided that the Kidney Transplant Team would take charge of my case and I was admitted to the Kidney Transplant ward on 9 West.

I wound up with a very nice hospital room, complete with a couch, easy chair and a recliner. I think it was a frequent user club type of thing, although the view left something to be desired. I spent the rest of that day and the next day doing breathing treatments, taking IV antibiotics and resting. The irony of the weekend was that while in my hospital room in the Kidney Transplant Ward, Meg and I watched the movie “Steel Magnolias.” Monday afternoon I was released and while I still have pneumonia, it is now going down and I have prescriptions for two antibiotics to get rid of it. I have a follow up with the Transplant Team on Thursday but now, I am at home resting and hope to be back to normal by the end of next week.

July 1, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

NYC Weekend and Beyond

We had a crazy weekend last weekend and I am still recovering. Friday Meg and I took the train into Manhattan where we were spending the night and going to the Bette Midler Concert at Madison Square Garden. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the concert. We got into the city around 2:30 PM and walked from Grand Central Station to our Hotel on 29th Street with a stop at Macy’s and some shopping for things that were ‘accidentally’ left in the car when Carolyn dropped us at the train station. Our hotel was nothing special, but it was clean and fairly inexpensive for NYC. The room was much smaller than we had a week ago in Providence, but it was adequate to our purpose. We had dinner in an Irish Pub/Restaurant near Madison Square Garden and then went to the concert. The concert was great, she was very entertaining, funny and she did some great songs. It was very impressive for a woman who is 70 years old. Saturday we checked out early and walked up town and did some shopping along the way and ended up in the Times Square Area and arrived in time for the final race of the Greater New York Council’s Pinewood Derby Championship in Times Square. I didn’t know it was happening it was just a coincidence that we came upon it. After Times Square we headed back to Grand Central Station and had lunch at the Oyster Bar before heading back to Connecticut. Overall we had a nice time, but were exhausted from walking all over Manhattan.

Tuesday I woke with a sore throat, but no other symptoms of a cold or any other issues. The sore throat persists and occasionally I have a coughing fit that makes my throat hurt even more. The past couple of days I have been staying close to home, since Carolyn has my car, and mainly doing some house elf stuff – laundry, dishes, cooking etc… I have gone walking but it is so hot that I can’t walk for too long. Also the heat, combined with the sore throat makes doing outside work very difficult. I am going to start to do the lawn late this afternoon when the front yard is in the shade. Tomorrow if my sore throat is not better I will have to contact the Transplant Center. They want me to call no matter how trivial my symptoms are so that they can make sure that it is not affecting my Kidney function. I don’t feel like my kidney is having any problems – my blood pressure is holding (high but holding) and my urine output is the same. But better safe than sorry, so tomorrow if the sore throat has not gotten any better I will call.

June 26, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Wedding and Recovery

Kate & Kenny’s wedding was a great success! My sister Carol arrived in Shelton on the Wednesday before the wedding and she traveled to Providence with Carolyn on Thursday. Meg and I stopped on Thursday to pick up Kate’s wedding dress and we all arrived in Providence at the Omni Hotel and hooked up with Kate & Kenny and my brother Richard and his wife Terry. It was a great family reunion and for dinner we went to Mediterraneo Cafe in Federal Hill. We had a great meal and a lot of fun. It had been a little over a year since I had gotten together with my brother and sister and this was the first time since my transplant. Friday was dominated with errands for the wedding and greeting people when they arrived and delivering the gift bags we had prepared. The rehearsal was at 6:00 PM at Providence College in St. Dominic Chapel followed by dinner at the Local 121 Restaurant in Providence. The rehearsal seemed to be a little dis-organized but I guess enough of what everyone was told was remembered. The rehearsal dinner was a lot of fun! Saturday we spent most of the day getting ready as our room was the hair and makeup studio for the bridesmaids and mothers of the bride/groom and then the bride. Kate & Kenny did get a nice gift from the hotel, an upgrade to a giant suite on the 24th Floor. Everything went smoothly and we made it to the church on time, although the priest was running a little late but did make it in time. The wedding was a beautiful ceremony although I think Meg and I shocked a few people by walking Kate down the aisle together! The ceremony lasted about 45 minutes and then we did pictures outside the Chapel and then we were off to the reception.

The reception was also a lot of fun and everything ran very smoothly. The cocktail hour was a little more crowded than I expected but went well. I messed up a little in my toast, mainly forgetting things I planned to say despite having some notes, but what I did say I said well. Dinner was great and all the after dinner festivities (cake cutting, first dance, father/daughter dance, mother/son dance) went well. At some point it started to rain but by the time we left it was not raining, although there was the remnants of the gay pride parade and many of the streets around the reception were very crowded. Sunday we did a family brunch with all the Rennie and Chambers Clan at the Providence Oyster Bar.

We finally got home Monday afternoon and I had a doctors visit at the Transplant Center at 8:30 Tuesday morning. My Blood Pressure is down a little but not enough yet but I have only been on my additional BP medicine (the Clonidine Patch) for a week. I have another appointment in two weeks and hopefully it will be down some more. My sister left early Tuesday morning (6:00 AM) and she arrived home safely. It was great to visit with her and my brother! Today Meg and I are off for a night in New York City. We have tickets to a Bette Midler concert at Madison Square Garden. We are having dinner at an Irish Pub near the garden before the concert, and tomorrow we are going to brunch and a yarn store (of course) and a little sight-seeing and probably more shopping. Then on Monday, Meg starts summer school and everything will get back to normal.

June 10, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Final Wedding Planning and Ear Wax

Last Friday I had an appointment with an ENT Doctor to evaluate how my recovery was progressing after the viral infection of my parotid gland and the swelling that it caused. He reviewed my CT Scan that I had in the ER and also did a detailed exam of my mouth. According to the Dr. everything looks OK now but I am to call if I have any problems and come back in a year. They then did a check of my ears and found a large deposit of Ear Wax so they decided to clean out my ears. The first ear they did (left ear) cleaned out ok after like ten minutes of sucking out the wax and an application of Hydrogen Peroxide. The other ear they had trouble with and despite several applications of Hydrogen Peroxide they still couldn’t get it clean. So now I am on a Hydrogen peroxide treatments at home twice a day and will go back to the ENT Dr. in two weeks to see if that has loosened up the wax and make it possible to clean out the ear. The funny thing is that despite the cleaning of one ear and the partial cleaning of the other ear I don’t feel that I am hearing any better than I was before the appointment. I will continue with the treatments and hope they get the rest of the wax out at the next appointment.

Yesterday – Tuesday, June 9th – Carolyn and I went to the Providence Public Library for a final meeting with the caterer before the wedding next weekend. Kate & Kenny me us there and we met with the Catering Coordinator for about an hour. It was Carolyn’s first time seeing the inside of the library. We made some final plans and finalized the schedule or events and all the details to make sure we are all on the same page. It sounds like everything is all set for a great event. There are still some uncertain aspects that we won’t have the answers to until they actually happen – how long the ceremony lasts, how long to do the photos after the ceremony, traffic concerns, weather etc… But we are as set as we can be at this point. The details that we still need to get done are starting to get down to a manageable list. Hopefully we will get a lot done this weekend as Kate is coming to visit while Kenny is away on his Bachelor weekend at Fox Woods Casino.

June 3, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Three Months Post Transplant

This week is the three-month anniversary of my Kidney Transplant. I feel considerably better than I did before the transplant but there are still things I can’t do and some side effects that are causing concern. I continue to have some shaking in my hands when I type, eat or especially when I write. My blood pressure is way to high and they have increased my BP medicines several times and still it doesn’t come down. I also don’t yet have the stamina I had before all this started especially when doing yard work or walking. Despite all this, my doctors keep telling me ‘these things are normal and that I will get better but it takes longer than you think’ etc…. It is starting to sound like the Charlie Brown sound effects when an adult is speaking – Waac Waac Waac! Last weeks episode with the viral infection also came back this past weekend although it didn’t last and was gone by morning, and it still bothers me to not know what causes it. I do go to the ENT Doctor on Friday and hopefully will know more after that. In honor of the three-month transplant date I have sent a gift to my kidney donor – a t-shirt that says “I’m an organ donor! What’s your superpower!”

Kate’s wedding is now in less than 18 days away and the stress seems to be mounting exponentially. Since I am the one not working I get to complete all the DIY projects we planned for the wedding. It is not anything too difficult but the sheer volume is a little overwhelming. My to-do list doesn’t seem to change in length. I keep checking things off the list and at the same time I keep adding new items at the bottom of the list as we remember them or think of them. My house has wedding supplies in just about every room. This coming weekend Meg and Carolyn are heading to Massachusetts for Kate’s bridal shower. I may go and spend the time they are at the shower helping Kenny to move her final items into their new apartment. Not that I can be much help in a move since I still can’t lift much weight but there should be some things I can carry, but I would at least get to see them and we may stay for a family dinner.

Also this week many of the final payments are due to the various vendors for the wedding, so I wrote a lot of checks today and some more will go out in the next two days. We still have a couple of bills that we are not sure of the amount and are trying to get the final bill from the vendor without much success yet. Our largest bill, the Caterer, is not due till like June 12th and we have the final meeting with the Caterer at the Library next week so we will know the final amount. The count keeps changing and it is going down so we will probably give the caterer a low number at first since we can add up until like 2-3 days before but we can’t lower the count after we make the final payment. When I did special events for a living I was pretty good at guesstimating attendance for events, but with those we always had a 10% contingency where there are seats available and they always had more food available. With a wedding they set up for the exact number and they only have extra food to cover their mistakes.

May 29, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Many Returns – World Traveler and Hospital Stay

The week started out great but took a bad turn. Last weekend Kate and Kenny came to Shelton and we had a great visit. We made a bunch of wedding decisions, opened some very nice wedding gifts, and organized the seating for the reception, which went much quicker than I expected. Then on Sunday Carolyn returned from her semester abroad in Granada, Spain and one the way home from JFK we met Kate & Kenny at the Dinosaur BBQ in Stamford for a welcome home dinner! Carolyn had a great experience in Europe and is already exploring possibilities of returning to Spain after graduation. Monday Carolyn was working with the Perry Hill School Marching Band for the parade and Kate & Kenny had to return to Milton, MA. In the afternoon we went to a friends for a combination birthday party/Memorial Day picnic and we had a great time. Tuesday morning Carolyn and I got to work on the myriad of items we had to get accomplished for the wedding. There are a lot of items that we have decided to do DIY rather than renting or purchasing.

On Tuesday mid afternoon I noticed a swelling on the side of my face, under my ear. I first thought it was like a bug bite but it was fairly small so we just put some ice on it to see if the swelling would go down. At dinner after like two bites I couldn’t eat anymore due to the pain and the selling ballooned up to like the size of half a baseball. After dinner I called the transplant center at Yale and explained the situation and they told me to go to the ER. At 8:00 PM we went to the Yale New Haven Hospital ER because they would have access to my kidney doctors and anything that might affect the kidneys is of major concern. Obviously the ER felt the same because when we got there the waiting room was full but I was taken right in and saw a doctor within the first three minutes. The first thing done was to take a blood test to determine if my Kidney Function. They wound up doing two blood tests of kidney function and both came back and showed great kidney function. The doctors didn’t find any evidence of a bug bite so they ordered a CT Scan which I finally had done at 1:00 AM. Then we had to wait three and a half hours for the results during which time I was examined by an ENT Doctor who consulted with the kidney staff. Eventually it was determined I had a viral infection of the parotid gland (gland that produces saliva) and because of the recent transplant and fear of damaging my new kidney they decided to admit me so around 6:00 AM I was taken up to the Kidney Ward, the same ward I was in after my transplant.

The course of treatment was pretty straight forward – I had to suck on sour foods (lemon wedges and lifesavers), I had a mouthwash with antibiotics in it, warm compresses and then a drip antibiotic. I was also on a saline IV so as not to get dehydrated and had to drink lots of fluids. Nothing particularly complicated at all but it did take a while to build up and start to work and I had no sleep Tuesday night so I was very tired and it was boring in the hospital. Meg and Carolyn had left the ER around 5:30 AM and were able to get a little sleep. I tried to eat some breakfast but the pain from chewing was just too intense. I was hoping to be released Wednesday afternoon but that wasn’t to happen since the swelling was not going down yet. I was finally able to eat at dinner and had an omelet which I could chew easily since it was soft to begin with. I did get a good nights sleep from around 10:30 PM until like 4:30 AM when they woke me to take blood. then I went back to sleep but at 5:30 AM a procession of visitors came in for vitals, with medicines and various doctors, none of which apparently could make a decision that would let me go home. By this point the swelling had gone down substantially but was still there. Around 9:00 AM my nurse told me I was to be discharged but the orders weren’t in the computer yet. Then I saw a transplant surgeon that wanted to see my wound and how it was healing. He had one of his minions return to clean it up and to burn off some of the dead skin. This did not hurt at all since when they did the initial incision they cut all the nerves so I essentially have no feeling near my wound. I was finally released and Carolyn arrived and we left around 10:45 AM.

We went to the pharmacy in Shelton to pick up two prescriptions – one for the mouthwash and one for a pill form of the antibiotic that I was on in the hospital. I feel much more relaxed at home and that is helping the swelling to go down even more. I have a follow-up with an ENT doctor next week. The frustrating part is while they know what it was and how to treat it, they don’t know what caused it and that is annoying. I don’t know if I ate something or drank something that caused this. I would like to know so that I can avoid whatever I did or ate or drank that made this happen. But I woke up this morning and it seems that the swelling is almost gone!

May 20, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

The Final Countdown

So it is one month until Kate & Kenny’s wedding and we are starting to get overwhelmed with details. We are trying to track down the last invitations to make sure we contact everyone so we have as accurate a count as possible. Once we know who is coming we get to start with the seating arrangements for all the guests. That is compounded by not knowing a lot of the guests – we don’t want to sit people with people they don’t like etc…. Once the seating is done we get to make the place cards and of course we have decided upon a DIY card that we have to individually cut out – fortunately Carolyn is coming home this weekend and she will be a help in cutting out pineapples and with all the other ancillary details. We also have to make the favor, print programs, gift bags for out-of-town guests, and more that I can’t remember right now – all DIY projects. Wedding gifts are also starting to arrive. Fortunately they came and took away all my dialysis supplies so we are using the pallet in my garage that used to store dialysis supplies and now it is getting full of wedding gifts. This coming weekend Kate and Kenny are visiting and Carolyn is returning so hopefully we will get some things on the list accomplished this weekend.

So my High Blood Pressure problems are continuing. The doctor increased my blood pressure medicine but my pressures seem to be staying high. I go back again to Yale next week to see the nephrologists and hopefully my BP will be getting lower. Right after my transplant my pressure went up but not too high. Now it is hovering in the 180/60 to 190/80 area and that is way too high. My doctors tell me they want it at around 130/60. Also this past weekend I spent a lot of time in the yard bending over and picking up sticks on the ground. I woke on Monday with some pain in my kidney, or at least in the area where my new kidney is installed. I called the Yale Transplant Center and spoke with my contact nurse. If the pain continues I am to go to the Yale ER. In the meantime I am to scale back what I am doing in the yard and to stop going to the gym. The pain seems to be less and also seems to be in different places so I am thinking this is mainly a joint issue rather than a kidney problem, but I am not going to do anything to risk any damage or rejection in my new Kidney. On the 1-10 scale the pain is only at around 2 but any pain near my kidney is troubling.

May 14, 2015 by Dave's Dialysis Diary

Kind of a Good News / Bad News Situation

I had my regular appointment with my nephrologist on Monday at the Yale Transplant Center and there is both good news and bad news. My kidney function is doing great! My creatinine level is down to 1.2 which is great. When I went in for my transplant it was at 11.0 and that was when I was on dialysis. It started coming down right away and has consistently been improving until it leveled out about a month ago at around 1.3. I was told that was great and not to expect it to get lower since the kidney I received was 7 years older than I am, but that they (my nephrologists) were very happy with a level in the 1.3-1.7 level. Also on the good news front my scar is finally healing and I am not leaking any fluids anymore. The nephrologist told me that I no longer need the visiting nurse coming twice a week to check on my wound and re-bandage it, that whatever it would need either I can do myself or Meg can help me to cover it over.

The bad news is my blood pressure is way too high and they are concerned about this. It has been hovering at the 180/80 level and they want it at around 130-140/60. They have increased my BP medicine and we are hoping that will bring down the blood pressure but it takes time for that to work. This is a big change for me since while I was on dialysis my Blood Pressure kept getting lower and lower almost to where is was too low. I had totally stopped taking any medicine for blood pressure. Also on the bad news front is some potential joint issues caused by my anti-rejection meds. I have been having some joint pain in my ankles that gets very intense, mainly when I am at the gym or doing yard work. She told me to cut down a little on the walking as I was doing two forty minute sessions at the gym each day. I am still not to do any weights yet, primarily just until I am totally recovered. I am now down to only one session of like 60 minutes and then I will do only like an hour or two of yard work.

This past weekend Kate and Kenny came down for Mothers Day and they were a big help. I had spent a couple of weeks clearing brush that hadn’t been cleared for the two years that I was on dialysis, so I had lots of piles of brush all over the yard. They hauled all the piles into the woods in the back yard and then they cleared some areas I hadn’t gotten to yet. Now my back yard is even larger than before. My yard is kind of a never-ending project. After I get all the clearing done I want Meg want to do some more planting of some ferns and ivy and also we have a dozen bags of mulch to spread. I also have several stone walls that need some selective re-building but I am still limited in how much weight I can lift so I am holding off on the stone work until I can safely lift. Saturday afternoon Kate, Kenny, Meg and I went over wedding details and made some more decisions. Then for Mothers Day we went out for dinner Saturday night to an Italian Restaurant in the village, Aribella’s. It was a great meal and we had a nice visit with Kate and Kenny. Sunday they had to leave early to get back for Mothers Day in MA but they will be back for Memorial Day Weekend when we will have to organize the seating for the wedding reception. Also that is the weekend that Carolyn will be coming home from Spain!

	Cloned Immunity… on Immune System Issue
	Lynda on Preventing Pneumonia Again
	Lynda on Back to the Emergency Room…
	Lynda on Hopefully Not Premature E…
	Lynda on Retirement and Beyond