This week has been one of the sweetest weeks of my professional career. From the moment my students walked into the classroom, I felt like I was home again. All the confidence and assurance of choosing the right career for myself came flooding back in an instant as I found myself greeting, talking with, helping, and even bantering with students again. Of course each day brought a moderate stress load of prep and planning, but I was able to manage.

The staff at Shuksan was amazing in welcoming me back and checking on me daily to make sure I was maintaining energy levels and making sure I had everything I needed for the four different subjects I am now teaching. I found it so easy to tell them that teaching was giving me more life than it was taking and I was so glad to be back.

The most difficult part of this week physically has been managing sleep. As I have said before, high doses of different meds affect sleeping and waking at inopportune times, waking me up too early or not letting me go to sleep soon enough. In spite of this, I have felt well rested this week and God has been faithful in allowing me the rest if not the sleep quota I set for myself each night.

I am now getting blood draws once a week to maintain progress and the most recent draw (Tues. Feb. 2) continues to show stability and even moderate improvement:

Hemoglobin: 7.0

Hematocrit: 20.6

Platelets: 10,000

Other counts that we are looking at closely are kidney and liver processing levels. Some of these counts have started to rise above what is safe and acceptable so we are adjusting doses of certain meds to keep those under control. It is a fine balancing act between giving my blood what it needs and not overwhelming my organs with toxicity. Please pray that the organs can handle the necessary doses of meds to sustain my improved counts.

I continue to take daily meds for my Aplastic Anemia and I visit the infusion center for an IV drug once every two weeks to treat the PNH disease. There are moments where I feel so dependent, but I am grateful for the modern medicines that allow me to function as I am. God is faithful in so many ways.