This Blog Post is Brought to You By the Letters "M," "L," and the Number "14"



I grew up on Sesame Street.  My mom will tell you that it's the reason I skipped kindergarten.  My favorite character was Grover.  My favorite book was "The Monster At the End of This Book."  Nothing  ever seemed to go right for him...ever.  His superhero alter-ego always ended up crashing into walls, he couldn't seem to remember anything, and he was the waiter at the restaurant where the guy always had a fly in his soup.

Lately, I've been feeling a little bit like Grover.  A little picked on, a little left out, and nothing seems to go right for me.  My hep B viral count is still too high, so the transplant has been postponed yet again.  (For those of you keeping score at home, this is postponement number four.)  It's going down, but still is detectable, so my med dosage has been doubled again, and I'll have another blood draw on May 10.  Oh, I'm tired of hoping and praying.  I'm ready to do some happy dancing!

So, the new date is June 14.  A pretty significant date in our family.  My sister who is donating the kidney to me gave me something else on June 14, something that means so much to me. 

As I have thought about the number 14, a few other fun facts struck me:

1.  When Michelle told me about June 14, I counted how many dialysis treatments I had left.  14!

2.  In December, I purchased a pack of 50 Tegaderm patches (they cover my dialysis catheter site and make it waterproof.)  I counted how many patches I have left.  I have exactly enough to last the 14 treatments!

3.  Courtnie's birthday is June 14.  (It's also her favorite number!)

4.  Ian is 14.

I'm not really a "sign seeker," but I feel pretty excited about all of these little coincidences.  Once again, trying not to get my hopes up too high, but feeling good.

By the way--if you can figure out what the title of this post is, you win a prize! :)