Moving forward…

 Tomorrow we start getting ready for immune suppressing drugs. So I’m off to the doctor’s office to check a liver enzyme required for metabolizing Imuran – something like 0.3% of the US population doesn’t have it, and can get horribly ill if they take the drug, so it’s increasingly common for physicians to actually check to see whether someone has the enzyme. Disturbingly enough, this test is patented by the drug manufacturer (Nestle), so my blood has to be shipped off to California. After that’s done, we get me started on the drug, do a gazillion blood tests to make sure my liver isn’t failing and we’ve got the right doseage, and after three months I should start to feel better.

Manuscript is in round 3 of revisions. Editors are supposed to be in touch tomorrow….so ready to be past this. 

Finally changed advisers…..and emailing former adviser to let her know I was switching was not my most professional moment, but it’s done. I want to graduate, and that’s not going to happen with meetings twice a semester.  Now I just need to sit down and put together a program of study….provided I manage to get through classes this semester.

Research study is wrapping up, so it’s time for final measurements. Staying busy keeping track of research participants.

Found out on Facebook that the date for my ten-year highschool reunion has been set. It’s in the tasting room of an "urban winery". What the heck?  I graduated from high school in the middle of nowhere.  I’m feeling some anxiety about this (mostly thanks to being the nerdy girl no one knew or liked in high school), but we’ll probably make a weekend trip out of it and see other friends in the area. And while I think at my core, I am the same person I was ten years ago…since then I’ve traveled to three new countries (India, Belize, Guatemala), gotten a bachelor’s and master’s degree (and a graduate certificate), lived in two different states (Maryland and South Carolina) taught undergrads, assisted with a ton of research studies dealing with everything from mouse lung samples to veterans,  managed research studies, gotten married, survived the death of an incredibly dear friend, and am managing a chronic illness. I’m kind of a rock star. Nothing to be afraid of. Although I’m already hitting up my closet trying to figure out what to wear (top three contenders are a floaty turquoise dress picked up at Goodwill for $7, the one-shouldered purple dress I wore to my cousin’s wedding last year, and a little red dress from a film festival in college. I’m sure I’ll post photos once I *really* need to make up my mind).

So…Yes. Lots to do, lots already done. Breathing. Or rather, trying to…we’ve all either passed around a spring cold or are having seasonal allergies. Sage was decidedly mopey and squinty-eyed yesterday afternoon and I berated myself for missing the vet’s saturday morning hours, but he’s perked up tremendously today – which means he’s back to trying to climb the walls. There’s been a little gray cat hanging around our apartment the past couple days, and he keeps pointing it out to us. I’m not yet sure if it’s a neighbor’s outdoor cat (it’s not currently wearing a collar, but was fairly recently) or someone’s lost pet, but we’re keeping an eye on it. Offered the other cat some dry catfood, mostly to try to figure out whether or not it was hungry, which may or may not have been the best idea. At least it knows now that we’re willing to help. (My impulse, as an indoor-only cat owner is to scoop it up and run down to the vet or local animal rescue to have it scanned for a microchip…but cats do lose their collars, there are several cats in the neighborhood that roam outdoors, and it wasn’t terribly skinny or disheveled. Sigh)