"Fantastic"

That was the exact quote when Dr. Hayman asked the nurse today how Gerry's recovery was going.

Gerry is golden - which I've always known - and has been an amazing over-achiever in his body's stellar reaction to his chemo and transplant. The cells are grafting, they started on day 13 (which is supposedly a harbinger of a very good outcome) and once again I found myself weeping in a doctors office.

Thank you all so much for your continued good thoughts - they mean a lot to us. The kind messages, the cheerful words, the funny emails and touching stories - they are all very dear. I haven't had a chance to respond to the snail-mail messages we've received, life has been overwhelming. But we're hoping to get more concrete thanks to folks during the long winter months here in MN - a new hobby for Gerry!

Right after breakfast today Gerry called to say that his final doctor's appointment had been rescheduled for 11:00 am today - yay! - so I hurried on down to Rochester where Gerry, Elaine & I heard the 'going home' instructions. We wanted to move it up because I'm leaving on Friday, and we learned yesterday that Friday was going to be Gerry's out day. But now he's coming home on Thursday. When things start moving, they move FAST.

Afterward I packed a bunch of stuff at the hotel and loaded up the car so that moving day tomorrow will be less stressful, and hurried home to be here for the kids.

Gerry's day + 100 appointment is scheduled at the Mayo for the second week in December. Apparently he'll be feeling light years better, his bones will be stronger, and he may even be able to straighten up when he walks if he's able to engage in Physical Therapy. That seems to be the main thing on his mind - getting himself back to roughly the same place he was a few months ago in the way he can walk and move.

Everything's happened so quickly - in many ways we're still trying to wrap our minds around the fact that he's sick / has been sick. Sometimes the mind takes a long time to catch up.

Gerry has done as well as anyone could - his numbers are excellent, his white blood cell count is pretty amazing for someone who's gone through what he has, and he's ready to come home. Obviously bringing in the Jewish mom for the "Eat, EAT!" portion of the recovery was a strategic move.

And how he's ready to come home.

Tomorrow.

As in, the day after today. Tomorrow.

Molysomophobia
The house is in NO way ready, but this afternoon I engaged in an intensive scrubbing & bleaching of the basement to remove drywall dust and take care of the residual microbes left after that little sewer back up problem (the roots in the sewer, remember? Ah, happy days when I was in France...)

I think that the house is probably as clean as it can be in the current situation. Messy, untidy, a black hole of disorganization - but CLEAN.

And, in the way of my life, the day after Gerry gets home I leave for the San Francisco area for a week of teaching in Sacramento & other parts West. Thank heaven his mom will still be here - thank goodness for Elaine!

So after my minor blog meltdown the other day (thank you SO much for the many supportive comments, they really meant a lot!) things are in better perspective - and some things have even resolved themselves!

POD
Without realizing it, the deadline for the POD was pushed to almost October, so I can breathe with that.

Travel
I had a marathon organization session and have calmed myself a little bit. San Fran, coming up this weekend, is relatively planned. The Texas trip is coming together, and those are the two biggest trips this Fall that I hadn't nailed down.

My Colorado trip is down to one shop, but it will be a fun trip. If you'd like to see my current Fall schedule it's up here - anniemodesitt.com/appearances.

I'll be able to spend most of Friday getting myself repacked, getting handouts printed and together and generally making sense of the week of teaching. A nice luxury - an afternoon flight!

I think I was being superstitious in my need to partially ignore upcoming trip details. I needed to hear how well Gerry was doing. And now back to the mortgage portion of our programming.

Until I knew that things were going well with Gerry, I'd hesitated to set up new teaching engagements for the Spring. But now it's time to start getting more gigs on my calendar, so if you know of a shop, guild or area that would like to have me come and teach, please feel free to let me know!

Current Knitting
I have a VK shawl to finish tonight, but that's not a huge deal as I already have it all charted and have been taking copious notes as I've worked along on it.

I think it needs just a few more hours before it's fini. Now I just have to find my ironing board & steamer. I can't find ANYTHING here now...

Home and Gerry
Tomorrow I'll drive down to Rochester to pack up Gerry and Elaine and get everyone home. What a huge thing that is - almost beyond comprehension.

Our front porch has become the holding area for all homeless items. It's looking a little trashy, but with any luck by the time I'm home from California the kitchen will be done and we'll be in a good place to reorganize our selves again.

For a Virgo, and a Dutch one at that, this limbo living with no organization and so much dirt is rough.

Plumbers Progress
Things are coming along with the bathroom / kitchen.

Small, annoying things crop up - but nothing that can't be handled relatively easily. I'm glad Gerry will be here to make decisions next week - it should be the final week and I'm tired of the decision portion of this game.

The vanity will work beautifully - it's going to look excellent in the room, and the $1.25 per square foot slate floor is wonderful. Touch me!

After that we'll be cooking and washing clothes and doing bathroom stuff all on the first floor, huzzah! Most important, though, Gerry will be able to stay comfortably with all of us on the ground floor if his colitis flares up - that's golden.

Of course I want Gerry's nausea to abate, but it's nice to know we're prepared for it if it doesn't!