Tis the Season to Tailgate

Tailgating season is upon us (which corresponds with football season). For the last 12 years we have met with the same group of people at the same spot to tailgate. Everybody is welcome to come, so friends will invite their friends who in turn invite their friends. I have met so many people from all walks of life, it's always a blast. There is always a food theme for each weekend and this coming Sunday it's Italian. Our friend Bob, always brings anti pasta on Italian day that is to die for. I always look forward to going to tailgate with my friends.

Oh, yeah, then there's the football game. My Panthers aren't doing so well. We have not been going to the games because Drew does not want to be out in the sun. Our tickets are in the sun for most of the game during the early part of the season. This is a small price to pay for being on anti rejection meds (they make skin cancer go wild).

Yes we go just to tailgate and then go home to watch the game.

New Kitty

We have a new kitten. We got him from a friend who found the kitten in an empty rental house. The kitten was headed to the animal shelter so we took him in. Drew and I are not very inventive when it comes to naming our pets. One of our cat's name is Spot because she is mainly white with a couple of black "spots" hence the name. Another of our cats unofficial name is dumbitch (with small letters). She is truly a dumb cat. Drew saw her fall from the second floor landing on her head as a kitten. She has not been the same since. Drew swears the fall gave her brain damage.
When we were trying to think of a name for the new kitty I sent an email to many of my closest family and friends and got many good suggestions. The most obvious name was Socks because the kitten is all gray but has four white paws. We started calling him dumbdick since it was a male cat and dumbdick is an affectionate name Drew and his brother call eachother sometimes. But that didn't seem right since we barly knew the kitten and we didn't know if he was truly dumb. We finally settled on Richard the proper name of Dick from dumbdick.
Richard has been a joy. He has given our other cats hell. He is a ball of engery and wants to play all the time. Richard sleeps with us at night and jumps on our feet in the morning. He is the sweetist cat we have!

All Restrictions are Off

Drew has finally been set free. He is free to work out and do any activity he wishes. His Achilles Tendinitis is 80% better and he feels so much better then just a few weeks ago. He has planted our vegetable garden and finished the project we started a couple of weeks ago. It's nice to have my old Drew back.

Drew gets to do more

Drew has been given the OK to do some gardening. He still is not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds but you know how that goes. The day he was told he could work in the garden Drew went straight outside and he has been there ever since.

More playing in the dirt

Today I spent all morning helping Drew "play in dirt", that's what I call his gardening. He talked about what he wanted us to do all week, he knew I would not just jump up and help him. He talked all week about what he wanted to do and how much he needed my help. We spent 4 hours digging, planting and moving landscaping rocks. We worked on an area that Drew has long ignored. It's an area that we can see when we sit in the breakfast nook (were we eat our meals together), so I really wanted the project to go forward. It was hard work and I sweated my butt off. It's not quite done, Drew is already talking about working on the project on my next day off.

Don't tell Drew but I really kinda enjoyed it this morning. I got to spend some real quality time with Drew. We used to spend Sundays on the boat but we sold our boat this spring. Drew battles skin cancer and the anti-rejection drugs cause skin cancer to grow wildly. Drew tries to avoid the sun like the plague.

Playing in the Dirt

One of Drew's passions is gardening. My late sister-in-law Trudie, was a certified Master Gardener. During holidays and other gatherings with my family, my brothers and I would be hunkered down at the computer while Drew and Trudie would talk gardening. Drew became a certified Master Gardener in 2007 because of this. You can see a little of his handy work on the April 20, 2008 entry in this blog.

At Drew's doctor's appointment yesterday, Drew asked when he could go back to playing in the dirt (what I call his gardening). The doctor said it will be quite a while, from the very beginning they said Drew would have to stay away from bacteria. This means sick people and dirt. Right now is prime gardening time (I think) and he is disappointed about this. I am thinking about a "gardening party" where Drew would make a list of things he needs (or wants) to get done in the yard and vegetable garden and invite people over to help get things done. We would provide all materials and refreshments. Just a thought.

Achillies Tendinitis

If there was a possibility of a complication Drew has experienced it. Just when Drew starts to feel better another complication hits. Drew started experiencing heel and lower leg pain. Since he has not been that active he knew he could not have hurt himself. His ankles started swelling- which I attributed to the high dose predisone he is on. So he spent two weeks with his legs propped up, which helped the swelling but not his pain. Drew went to see an orthopedist and the diagnosis was Achilles Tendinitis which was due to one of the medications he was on from his transplant! I have never heard of a drug causing tendinitis (shows you what little I know). Luckily the solution was to stop taking the offending drug which in this case was Bactrim. Bractrim is an antibiotic which targets bacteria which grows in the urine. Drew has not had any Bractrim since Wednesday and already his pain has gotten better.