Continuing Forward....warily

The six day trip back to Bethesda for round two of the vaccine went smoothly.In clinic on the 17th Dr. Bishop reiterated that he did not think my recent problem was GVH, since there wasn't any associated rash, and the biopsy was definitely negative, though he still could not give a specific reason for the 8 days of diarrhea I'd experienced. There was some concern about my creatinine (kidney blood test) being high, 1.9 (normal being below 1.5) This was felt to be due to the unexpectedly high cyclosporine levels that occurred after bumping my dose back up on November 7th and not catching the rising level as early as they could have, and then not reducing the dose initially enough to bring it down. Supposedly the elevation is reversible, though so far it's only come down to 1.7. Nancy was there for the first one-and-a-half days, but otherwise I pretty much avoided socializing. The GM-CSF given with the vaccine the first day (and then by itself the next three days - to augment my immune response to the vaccine) makes me feel a little fluey each afternoon and evening. Being a little gunshy from my recent stomach thing, I'd worry each day that somethng might be starting, but by the next morning I'd feel better, and relieved. Vaguely suspicious of "fatty foods" and milk products, I stuck to a repetitious, limited diet to keep that variable constant.
The weather was unseasonably cold for DC this time of year, and I was also finding myself more susceptible to cold than I used to be, so I did mostly short rides on the Trek Dave Scott lets me borrow, and wore twice what I would normally wear in weather 10 degrees cooler. By Sunday it was relatively warmer so, after my last shot of the series, I went on a one and a half hour easy ride with Dave. Due to losing some ground the last two months, I wasn't surprised that he was able to "drop" me on hills for the first time in the 8 months we've been riding together. Monday was rainy and I found Philancy kicking in as an otherwise inexplicable interest in taking the Metro down to the National Gallery to see the Winslow Homer exhibit(!?)
Uneventful flights home after clinic on Tuesday; this time actually getting to Spokane on-time and with my luggage.
A nice Thanksgiving. My parents came all the way from Boston (they're both 87 years old), Bram and Sarah made it home (Natty's in New Zealand until mid December), and pilot/friend George Marshall and his fiancee Julie joined us from Hamilton, MT. My mother was duly impressed at Mary Catherine's aplomb in throwing the turkey in the oven on the temperature-probe automatic-shut-off mode to embark on a 4 hour mountainous hike with her robust 25 and 27 year old offspring. Friday, with a small snow squall moving in all around us, George and I decided to stay close to the airport practicing different types of landings in the Comanche. We all observed "Buy Nothing Day" - certainly a nicer way to spend one's time with family and friends the day after Thanksgiving, then in the frenzied pursuit of Christmas "bargains". That afternoon Sarah gave an excellent slide show talk on her and Ethan's January - June 2005 South America trip before a full room at the Library - she had done a better job getting word out about her talk than other PFOS (Public Forum On Sustainability) events had been promoted.
Then our Thanksgiving guests dispersed: George and Julie left Friday. Sunday morning Bram hit the road early for the $80 - 7 day ski special at Big Mountain (near Bozeman MT), Sarah took the train back to Olympia last night, and I just dropped my folks off in Spokane for their flight out tomorrow. Those who were still here on Sunday were treated to the free showing of the recently released documentary "Walmart: the High Cost of Low Price", that MC and I had helped put on at our local historic theatre, the Panida, which was full. A satisfying success.
I continue to taper the cyclosporine reducing the daily dose by 25mg each Thursday with, "knock-on-wood", no problems so far. It will be nice to get another hurdle behind me.

Phil