A Day of Visitors

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Yesterday was a sunny and fair weather day. At 9 AM, I went outside to the front of my house, set up a chair, took off my mask and sat there, staring at the sky. Sounds boring? It was. Fabulously and gloriously boring. The happiest boredom I've had in weeks. 

My wife joined me at one point and we even sat together. Doing absolutely nothing but basking in the weather.

Between the hours of 9 AM and 1 PM we had a number of visitors who passed by. Everyone was sure to keep their safe distance, but in that span of time, I must have seen 15-20 people all "happy" to see me (at least that's what they said) - sorry, low self esteem.

I had extremely knowledgeable doctors visit to discuss my case and numbers, offering tips and other forms of help, I had friends who just saw me and stopped to say hi. 

As a natural born cynic, I tend to hate people and have 0 faith in humanity (sorry, harsh reality), but yesterday, seeing people, felt great. We did it in a safe way and nobody stayed for hours, everyone kinda understood my tolerance for talking, which these days is very little because I become weaker the more I talk. 

At 1 PM I came inside for lunch and a rest - you think sitting in a chair doing nothing for 4 hours is easy??? It's EXHAUSTING!

At 2:30/3PM my father stopped by, walking 1.5 miles each way just to say hi. That was a big deal for me. The visit was timed perfectly as it was just him and me inside the house as it was drizzling at that time. The drizzle let up sometime around 4 and he left and I got 2 more visitors!

We moved it to the outside where it was more comfortable for everyone to be.

I sat on one side of my deck, while the visitors sat on the total opposite side.

My doctor showed up shortly thereafter, which was just amazing of him because I haven't seen him since I was diagnosed and I became emotional when I saw him come onto the deck.

By 5:30 the crowds dispersed, and at 6 PM I went for a walk.

we were home by 6:15 and I was just so tired.

Had I overdone it?

Probably, yes.

But I was secure in the fact knowing that I had done it safely to limit the risk of infection and exposure to illness. 

Honestly, outside of family, visitors is not something I would have thought I would like. Visitors would mean you're sick and people treat you differently, but honestly, nobody did. Everyone showed genuine love and concern for my state, and I'm grateful for everyone I saw yesterday be it in passing or as a more formal visit.

At this time, I'm still not advocating for everyone to pour in and visit. I need to be very careful and it so happened to have worked out very well yesterday where I was never with more than 2-3 people at a time. 

Knowing my next two days (Monday and Tuesday) are filled with Zoom classes on my condition and treatment post transplant, as well as mandatory doctors appointments with likely transfusions and injections, etc, yesterday was a perfect distraction and I surprised even myself with how I reacted to my plethora of visitors,

It's amazing how seeing some people can just lift your spirits and make you feel normal when you know you're not. So to all those I saw yesterday who are reading this, know you made an impact in not only yesterday, but something that carries over into today as well.

I'll probably check in again Wednesday, hopefully still at home, and maybe with some real updates though that remains to be seen.

If you haven't been able to tell by now, we're playing the "hurry up and wait" game with the hospital. And it's a shitty game to play. I do not recommend it.

But we will get there!

Get out and enjoy the nice weather while it's here. I promise I will try and do the same.

Wishing myself luck and good health through at least the next two days of appointments.


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