Deep Water Days
A Blog by Tina Litster
Hair and Hugs
My hair is beginning to grow in again. I look like a really hairy peach right now, and I think I look even weirder than I did when I was completely bald. But I had a tender mercy a few days ago that has helped me see my head from a different perspective. I was at my...
By Their Fruits, Ye Shall Know Them
I had a wonderful time with my family the past few weeks. I was blessed with a visit from two daughters who live way too far away, added to my four sons and their families who live near, and then a short visit from my two sisters. It was two...
Do the Next Right Thing
It is the nature of progress to make yourself do things you may not want to do. My mom taught me (and enforced it) that I had to do my chores before I could play. As a home maker for 40 years, I have used this principle to get the work done; do the work that I like...
New Ways
You don’t think yourself into a new way of doing; you do yourself into a new way of thinking. Gratitude is one of the proofs of this principle. For many years, I have known what to do when I need to pull myself out of a pity party. It is to focus my mind, prayers,...
Weak Week
I’ve been sitting on this couch update for a while, waiting for something new to happen, but there’s only two things to report. One is, I did get out of the hospital on Monday. They kept me in nearly three days because that’s their minimum with a transplant stay. I...
Karma, Chance and Choice
Bad News!! I have been back in the hospital since Friday. It seems to be “neutropenic fever” this time (it just is part of having no immune system after a transplant). The rule is that if I ever get a fever of 100.4 or greater, they put me in the hospital for at least...
Engrafted!
Great news!!! I am home from the hospital and went to the clinic today. And I am what they call Engrafted, which means that my white blood cells are multiplying within normal limits. I still have almost all the restrictions that I’ve had since chemotherapy. But I have...
It Takes Some Getting Used To
I’ve been in the hospital for three days now, and probably have at least two more to go. They will let me go home when my blood tests show that my white blood cells are multiplying fast enough. I am here because the colitis that developed as a result of chemotherapy...
Mmmmmm Good!
July 28, 2024 We’re often reminded that there are no stupid questions. but I get asked one every single day at the cancer clinic that I think defies that logic. They ask me every single morning whether I’ve travelled out of the country in the last day. One day, I’m...
Marching Into the Unknown
All my cancer treatments, beginning in March, have been leading me to this point; today’s high dose chemotherapy treatment and the reinfusion of my stem cells on Thursday. It’s been 8 hours since the chemo, and I feel a little lightheaded, but...
The Power of Vision
I recently read Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning”. Frankl’s core message is that humans can make it through just about anything if they can hold a vision of the future in their mind It’s been 5 months since I was told I have Multiple Myeloma, a cancer...
Celebrate!
I took a big test today-it had 5.2 million questions and took 7 hours with almost constant surveillance (I’m sure they were making sure I didn’t cheat). If I passed the test, I could be done with the process that tells my bone marrow to produce and send stem cells...
Planting Time
Here’s my latest update, along with details about the reality I’ll be facing (as far as I know without having actually experienced it) for the next six weeks or so. I met with the Bone Marrow Transplant team to go over everything before all the transplant prep starts....
An Anchor in Deep Water
The first big trip Bill and I went on as a couple was to the Cayman Islands. It was a romantic island vacation, and we finally got the honeymoon we had skipped 15 years earlier. One of the things we did there was to take a boat with a bunch of other tourists to...
Mother’s Day
We celebrated our mothers yesterday, and I have been thinking a lot about mine lately. My mom, Wanda died on May 11, 2023. That was 1 year and 2 days ago, and people have asked me if her one-year death day and Mother’s Day this year were hard for me. Definitely not. I...
The Wild Mouse
Here’s my long past due update: It’s going to cover multiple weeks, since I haven’t done an update since April 10. Just think of four shorter updates all rolled into one, unusually long one. In the 1980's there was a wooden roller coaster at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah...
Look Up
My immune deficiency doctor asked me during our visit last week how I stay cheerful with so much uncertainty nipping at my heels constantly. It wasn’t a particularly good day, and I wasn’t feeling very cheerful, but it was an honest question, and I gave him my honest...
Miracles
I had a bad week last week with lots of side effects, so didn’t get an update done (sometimes I just don’t feel like communicating, to be honest.) I had another treatment yesterday. It was an easy one and seemed to go well. I’m having the usual...