I guess it is true that time flies when you are having fun, because that is where I have been, along with Lee!
A brief update will be to tell you first of all that Lee is doing great! He had a routine visit to Duke shortly before Thanksgiving, and the last on March 23rd. It was on the last visit to the clinic he was told that he was now doing well enough to move to annual visits only, unless he had a problem and needed to come! Amazing, right?! Since his lung's "birthdate" is June 23rd, he will return to Duke the early part of June 2014 for his beginning of annual checks. Duke likes to keep these on the same month as the transplant date. We will celebrate his fourth anniversary in June 2014!
The good, the bad and the ugly! Most of the past year has been good with the exception of a few complications from the very strong anti-rejection medicines. For the past two years, Lee had been plagued with skin cancers primarily on his face, scalp, ears and neck. He also had some on both his arms, hands and shoulders. Because of the high incidence of Ca. for him, he was finally taken off those very strong drugs. The cancers continued to surface so Duke, along with the dermatologist decided it would be in his best interest to use the more drastic treatment of chemical cream to finally rid him of as many precancerous lesions as possible. This was decided to be implemented during the Winter.
On the first of February, Lee began the chemical cream treatment. Within two weeks he looked like I would imagine someone with a severe case of Leprosy would look like! Not only that, he developed erythematous (sever inflammation, swelling and redness). He was also in a great deal of discomfort. As if that was not enough, he developed a severe case of Herpes Simplex in several places. Fortunately this coincided with his Duke appointment and the doctor was able to treat the Herpes virus and told him to stop the treatment at that time. When we returned home, he went to see his dermatologist who told him to wait two weeks and then resume the treatment on a few isolated areas of his scalp. Finally, he completed all the weeks and after two more weeks of peeling, he discovered a beautiful new layer of skin beneath all the layers that had disappeared. His skin today looks great! In fact, he looks many years younger because all of his wrinkles peeled off too!
My daughter warned him to hide the cream because she knew Mom would be smearing it all over her body! I was delighted that there were two refills left, but backed away from the urge to try it! Don't think I could have stood all the complications,.......especially the herpes simplex virus!
To date, we are glad it is Spring! It has been a dreadful Winter, but good if we compare to others in the North and other parts of the U.S. This morning we awoke to a short snow shower. The flakes were large and looked like cotton balls that melted as soon as they landed. Our flowering peach and pear tree blossoms were a beautiful backdrop against the snow. Even though there is a chill in the air, I am reminded by the daffodils, peach blooms and the tiny tulips guarding my sunroom entrance, that the promise of warm days is not far away.
Thought you might want to know that these past few months I have been busy collaborating a book with my two brothers. The book is a collection of our older sister, Bonnie's memories, particularly during the time when she was the only child. It is a delightful little book about what it was like to grow up during the depression, world war II, her teen and early years. Bonnie is now soon to be 84 years old and it was time to capture her memories. She dictated all the stories, we wrote them, created a biographical data, cover and produced a book called BONNIE'S TREASURES, by Bonnie Hendrix. It is available on amazon.com and any royalties go to Bonnie.
We are so excited about being able to do this for our sister. She has never used a computer and even if she did, her severe arthritis would prevent her from typing. We had teased her saying she should publish her own book so we could say we had all published a book! Brother Dennis came up with this idea and we had a wonderful time collaborating on this joint project. Check it out....I think you will enjoy reading Bonnie's Treasures!
More Later with good intentions for more blogs!.......................................
Brenda
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