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"I&amp;amp;#8217;m taking a post-bday blog break. Last night was AHH-mazing&amp;amp;#8212;The food! The wine! The massage!&amp;amp;#8212;and I need to recover a little so Lea&amp;amp;#8217;s going to take the reins today. Tomorrow I will post pictures, I promise. OK, take it away, Lea! Hey everyone, it&amp;amp;#8217;s Lea checking in from Seattle and I am almost at Day 50 Post Transplant, which means if all goes well, in another 50 days I get to go home! When I do get to head back to the Bay Area, there will be many restrictions on my daily life to keep me alive and safe&amp;amp;#8212;avoiding crowds (birthdays, parties, weddings, restaurants), no changing diapers, no gardening, no pools, and no airplanes. We haven&amp;amp;#8217;t even gotten into all the food/eating constraints, which will make me the most annoying person in the world to &amp;amp;#8220;grab a quick lunch with.&amp;amp;#8221; What&amp;amp;#8217;s worse is the actual idea of walking back into a community that has not seen this pale, prednisone-infused (my face looks like a chipmunk), bald woman with white tubing hanging out of her chest. I&amp;amp;#8217;m thinking I might cause a few stares. I&amp;amp;#8217;m also going to have to be the person to say &amp;amp;#8220;no we can&amp;amp;#8217;t come to dinner tonight since you have a cough or your child has a runny nose,&amp;amp;#8221; which has not been my style in the past. But I will be leaving Seattle immunosuppressed (basically taking drugs to keep my immune system down so my new cells have a chance to continue to grow) and I will need to be able to make wise decisions about life and living while creating a &amp;amp;#8220;new normal.&amp;amp;#8221; I guess I am at a loss as to how best to prepare people (and myself) for my return to California. Although I will want to see so many people who have supported us through this journey, things will be so different than when we left. I have changed and my needs in order to just survive have changed as well. I know I may be over thinking all of this (&amp;amp;#8220;future tripping&amp;amp;#8221; they call it) and I should just concentrate on the next 50 days of getting better before worrying about my life back home, but I want to be prepared. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t want to come across as a whiny, needy, self-centered girl, but I still have to put my health/survival needs first. Is that even possible? Any ideas for how to pull it off? Thanks, as always, for all of your support. &amp;amp;#8212;Lea"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/life-with-cancer/2008/01/update-from-lea>