Melody is on the left, Zoe is on the right

Two important updates... Healthwise - I'm doing really well. My last appointment with my doctor two weeks ago went well, and I have another followup next Wed. She was very happy with my progress when I saw her - and said I was actually doing better than expected for this point. Today is the 51st day since my transplant - and basically at day 60, my case transfers from my Stanford doctor back to my local oncologist - so next Wed should be the last time Dan and I have to travel to Stanford.

I'm able to sit up and do things these days for about two hours at a time - a while after that, and I start hitting the wall and getting very tired. But consider that about a month ago, I was only able to handle being up for about 45 minutes at a time - so my stamina is improving but not as fast as I'd like. I can go out - in fact, as long as it isn't to busy I can even go places like the movie theater so when Harry Potter came out, we just waited a couple days and saw a matinee - theater was only half-packed. Only time I have to still wear the hepa air-filter mask is when I am in a hospital or if I'm somewhere very packed or I think there are people who are going to be coughing. Like yesterday, we had to go to the Social Security office, which from Dan's previous visit he knew would be packed with families, so I wore my mask. Good thing too as I heard a ton of coughing throughout the waiting area.

Now for the not so pleasant update. This is something that actually has been happening for a while now - but I couldn't really talk about it. See, a couple of months ago my two dogs got out and while out, attacked two cats, killing one. They were declared to be dangerous dogs and Animal Control put them down recently. I made restitution to the owners of one cat and still waiting to hear from the other cat's owner. ... I am so sorry for what my girls did - that I didn't do more to secure them in the yard so they couldn't get out in the first place - but mostly, I just miss my girls. When I finally got the determination from Animal Control, I totally broke down but Dan was right there for me. It actually caused a ... setback in my progress as for about a week to ten days after, I was so depressed I basically stayed in bed for most of the day. I'm a lot better now - just that I can talk about it is pretty much evidence of that. It still hurts to think of them - they were wonderful girls but I know that they (well - Zoe especially) did have some issues. Dan tries to make me feel better by insisting that it was her previous family (the one that gave her to the SPCA) that fucked her up - and it is probably true. But I still feel like a "bad daddy" - and I just miss them so much. When I layed on the bed, Melody used to jump up and curl right into me, using my arm as a pillow. I wouldn't want to disturb her so I would just nap to keep her comfortable (ya, I was whipped - your point?).

Anyways - that's what's going on around here. Oh - Dan's been doing quite a bit of writing recently so that's made me very happy. But I'll let others bug him for details...