Mick McKellar Update--Day +84
Unrepentant sunshine streamed down upon Rochester today, finally dragging the reluctant temperature beyond 60 degrees. When the intrepid walkers made their first sojourn (at about 5:30 AM) a brisk wind and temps in the mid-40's were far less comfortable. Despite our arrival at Charleton Lab A, just before 6:00 AM, the waiting line was well out the door to the lab area. I am still amazed at how quickly the lab staff are able to process so many people so quickly. We were on our way back to the transplant house by 7:00 AM.
Our second visit, at 9:45 AM, included consultations and a visit to the world's slowest pharmacy.
My rash is improving slowly, and my hemoglobin appears to have stabilized for the moment. However, my creatinen spiked to 2.0. My doctor thought it might be due to high cyclosporin levels, but the blood tests show a reasonable amount -- so, I will be drinking even more water for the next couple of days. In general, however, I am doing quite well at keeping up my exercise level and my blood glucose within tolerable levels. She reduced my Prednisone to only 20 MG per day -- a good thing. Our pharmacy visit was to get a larger tub of steroid cream to fight the rash. And so it goes...
Rockin' and Readin'
This afternoon, I spent better than an hour just rocking on the front porch of the transplant house and reading a good book. I cannot sit in the sunshine, for direct sunlight inflames the rash and several of my medications prohibit exposure. Sitting outside, despite requiring my Darth mask, and a jacket, was wonderful. Eventually, the breeze and the cooler temperatures cut short my revelry.
Thus ends the day
Long shadows touch my window and gold touches the casement, telling me twilight is upon us again. My eyes are somewhat weary tonight, and my day started early with less sleep than I needed.
Late last night or early this morning, I woke from my sleep because a question dominated my dreams. In my own life, faith, love, and music are interwoven, they are part of the tapestry that is me. Could one unravel that tapestry, and why would anyone want to do it? Dreams are funny that way, they pick at the human heart and pose impossible possibilities, they touch the center of my life. My poem is dream-driven and heart-centered.
Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts. Your communications have brought home to us in heart-healthy doses.
God bless, and good night,
Mick
And now: Faith, Love, Music
Sometimes I wake in the wee hours of the morning, my mind churning away on a problem or trying to make sense of the daily nonsense of life. Last night, I was dream-pondering about the relationship between music, faith, and love. Do they exist apart, or are they so entwined with the human heart that to remove one weakens the others? Yes, one could write music with no faith or love in the title or song lyrics, but from where springs the creative spark?
Academically, one can separate them, as one separates egg whites from yolks. In my heart and my life experience, faith vibrates in my soul, love soars with the beauty and power of a symphony, and under, around, and within it all is the music of my life. Even this biological shell I inhabit vibrates with electrical discharges and maintains a magnet field of sorts, a wondrous electrochemical entity. The music of the universe, God's music lives in me.
Mick
Faith, Love, Music
Awake in the dark still hours of the night,
I listened to the music in my heart,
And wondered could it possibly be right:
Can faith, love, and music exist apart?
The essence of all that I am says, "No!"
For music is more than notes on a page.
The triumph of song lets my spirit go,
Beyond the borders of illness or age.
For when I love, my spirit simply sings,
Severed from fetters and free to take flight.
Faith touches my soul with warm golden strings,
That resonate with pure love day and night.
Each treasured prayer that I pray is a song;
It lives in my heart, it has all along.
Mick McKellar
May 2011