gratitude

DianaK

Appreciations 3/26-3/30: Diana and the Beautiful, Wonderful, No Bad, Very Good Day. (Plus a few other things from before that.)

The aforementioned BWNBVG Day
Starting the day with Katie at Carley Coffee!Carley Coffee 3:2017

Small vehicles carrying precious coffee beans.

Completing several tasks that have been on my to-do list for more than a YEAR!

Fun socks.

Walking around Uptown on my first 10,000+ step day in at least 6 months.

Cina’s good news! Plus her silliness. Heck.

Window art 3:2017Window art with Sarah & Ida. I love our ever-evolving, communal art!

Dragons!

Sarah’s way with words. Did you know that croissants are a donut-adjacent food? 😆

Ida’s breathtaking bedtime performance, ending with a mash-up medley of classic songs – Itsy Bitsy Spider, You Are My Sunshine, ABCs, and Old MacDonald. Brilliant!! 💚

Other things
From now on, any day that I am neither prepping for nor undergoing a colonoscopy shall be considered a Very. Good. Day. 😉

Jeff, who got up at WTF o’clock to transport me to the procedure and keep my company while waiting. And my folks for babysitting me after the procedure.

The med student who rubbed my back and patted my shoulder during the procedure (which took longer and was more challenging than usual for a variety of reasons).

Me, for trying to do Laughter Yoga during the procedure. Even sedated I am hilarious. (And Jody for introducing me to the practice in the first place!) Ha ha ha ha ha! ❤️

Looking forward to next week….with NO doctor appointments for the first time in several months. Wonder what I’ll do with all my spare time!

DianaK

Appreciations 3/14-3/16: Catrobatics, spiralizer & toddler workouts, sleep constructing

Toby’s slo-mo post-nap descent from the chair. Catrobatics!

I love funny conversations – and that I have so many of them. 😀
1. When I called to schedule my tax appt, the first date avbl was the day I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy. The scheduler and I laughed and laughed about how given the choice between working on my taxes and a colonoscopy, I picked the latter. Hahaha!

2. At my infusion appt, my nurse and I were discussing my myriad bruises and she suggested that perhaps they’d come about due to my secret nighttime construction job. Sleep constructing! Bwahahaha!

Sweet potato surprise!Scrumptious spiralizer meal Sarah and I made. A delicious sweet potato noodle dish, a decent upper body work out (srsly. sweet potatoes are NOT interested in being spiralized.), and surprising looking sweet potato sculptures resulted.

My new personal trainer, Ida! Loves being chased, lifted, twirled, danced with, and bounced. Workouts have never been so fun! ❤️

Remembering things. I made an unscheduled grocery run, so didn’t have my list. I still managed to get 13 of the 14 things that were on the list. #win #everythingisagame

DianaK

Appreciations 3/8-3/13: Galloping, blustering, and brunching, oh my.

Luna when she gets her crazy on and gallops up and down the hall over and over. Silly old girl. Hahaha!

Watching the world on a blustery day.

Enough energy to start my tax prep.

The reliable and friendly mechanic I’ve worked with for decades.

Soft PJs.

Friday night race group. So good to have a place to learn and stretch and grow.

Seeing I Am Not Your Negro with a few people from the group. What a thought-provoking and powerful film. I also super appreciated the chance to talk about it with Ellis after the movie.

Birthday brunch with Sarah & her folks. ❤️

Watching Ida dance. So much joy in such a tiny person! 😀

Pretty snow to make the cold temps a little easier to tolerate.

Legos, naps, sunshine, smiles, giggles, hope, coffee.

DianaK

Appreciations 3/2 – 3/7: Gatherings, grownup-ing, glorious weather

Gorgeous weather for walking. Outside! That was fun.

Yum yum yummy fish and chips.

Dinner with the Duncans and the girls.

Sweet birthday gathering for Tom and Jeni with the fam.

march tulips

Coupons for free tulips from the grocery store. Yes.

Current version of seriously-happy.com. More changes on the way. Meanwhile, UNICORN!

lego bugs and flowers

Me, doing my version of being a grownup. It involves lots of legos.

Sunshine, thunder, snow, wind. March is so funny!

DianaK

Appreciations 3/1-3/2 – Slumber, sunshine, and silliness!

Another decent night of sleep. That’s 2 in a row, folks. TWO!

This morning’s beautiful peachy-pink skies. 🌞

Good meeting with the GI doc on Tues. A couple more tests, but at this point looks like we might be able to treat with meds instead of surgery. Yay!

toby-with-lego-flowers-mar-2017

Still life with Toby and Lego flowers.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I’m chortling in my joy…
…from having energy. Wow! Yesterday was thrilling – I made my bed! I ate some food! I did some work! I might do all of those things again today. Maybe I’ll even leave the house!

The extremely silly fun Sarah and I are having as we figure out how we want to run the household. Her response yesterday, when I accused her of buying sponges twice in a row? “The sponges I brought with me into the relationship do NOT factor into the household sponge accounting going forward.”

Oh hahaha! She makes me giggle.

DianaK

Appreciations 2/23-2/28 – Good stuff: good brain, good times, good timing, good work

I love that my brain does such good work for me. Even as I work through this challenging health stuff, my brain shines the spotlight on my immense good fortune. Thanks, brain! Here’s good stuff from the past week.

Hanging out with the Katie & Cina who helped me prep meals so I’d have food for the week. Thanks, girls!

Amazing ride home with Cina… I suggested that the ride would take 7 1/2 minutes… and then, since we love to measure things, I set the stopwatch. Guess what? EXACTLY 7 1/2 minutes. I mean, okay, it was 7:30:22… but I’m calling that close enough.

Managing to stay OUT of the hospital (I mean spa) over the weekend. I DO love the folks there, but I really felt like we needed some time apart.

Having a flexible work schedule that allows for days (or weeks!) of tending to my health first and fitting in work on the edges.

Truly wonderful and understanding clients.

The amazing Sara who keeps things humming along when I’m out of commission. Wow, am I lucky to work with her!!

Hilarious timing with both of my brothers the other day – our texts crossing paths at the same moment as we were thinking about each other. Fun!

Working with Sarah on Seriously Happy stuff. It makes me, you know, seriously happy.

DianaK

Ha Ha HAA (aka Health Adventure Appreciations) 😃

Katie and Cina, who once again drove me to and stayed with me at the hospital. They are so generous and funny and make these challenging situations as fun as they can possibly be. I am quite sure I laugh more than “normal” people in similar situations — and the girls play a big role in that!

Working with some of the most generous, delightful, funny, smart, caring nurses, docs, and other staff at the hospital. They really are an amazing group of people. (Though I’ve decided I need to go in every few weeks with cookies and visit them THAT way instead of being admitted….) 😛

The chance being in the hospital gave me to refine my MDFUN bingo cards. The nurses loved them and I learned so many interesting things about their lives and had so many fun conversations with them. One nurse even told us, “I was going to give you to another nurse, but I’m going to steal you!” We had so much goofy fun with her!

The sense of perspective my first night in the hospital gave me. That was a no-sleep night in a shared room with a woman who was having SUCH a rough time. I wished I could help her somehow. So did the nurses. Tough for everyone. 🙁 Reminded me of how fortunate I am.

Fantastic view from my 2nd room (and the chance it gave me to get some rest!)! On Tuesday the skyline played hide-and-seek through the fog. Gorgeous. 💙

Sunday
Tuesday 7 am
Tuesday 10 am
Tuesday 1 pm

My excellent stats in Tissue B-Ball (making shots across the room from the hospital bed). Final score on Monday was 30 shots made and 14 missed. (That may not sound like much, but YOU try throwing with either your non-dominant hand or an arm with an IV in it and see how well YOU do!) 😝

The lovely visits, calls, and texts from people while I was in the hospital. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful group of family and friends!

Pics and updates from Sarah. I am SUPER bummed to be missing our trip, but it sure is sweet to see Ida discovering sand and waves and geckos! 💚

Feeling so much better after transfusions and IV iron. Holy moly, I’m glad these things are possible! I SUPER appreciate the people whose donated blood helped me SO much. I don’t get to donate b/c of my crazy low BP, but I super appreciate everyone who takes time to do this!!

Finding a legitimate reason to bark while in the hospital. Yes, my life is very, very good.

My salty 😉 sister-in-law Laura who brought me ALL the gluten-free goodies French Meadow had to offer on Sunday, and then drove me home on Tuesday, and then picked up my meds and went grocery shopping for me. Did I mention how lucky I am??cheezy-flowers

Gorgeous flowers sent to me from my darling and thoughtful friends. We may live far apart, but we sure are in each others’ hearts. ❤️

Enough juice to get all the way around the block and soak up some sunshine! Thanks, Katie and Cina, for walking me. 😀

Now, having said all that, and just to be clear – I REALLY am willing to notice my good fortune every day WITHOUT some spectacular drama to bring it into focus. Srsly.

DianaK

Appreciations 2/6-2/9: legos, laughter, little miracles

lego-kisses

Valentine-themed lego fun thanks to Sarah!

Newly organized craft supplies. Woohoo!

Dinner with Sarah, Ida, Katie, and Cina. What bright, funny, adorable people! ❤️

U of M cardiology’s very pleasant hold music. What a treat. 😀

Sunshine.

Not being sick!! OMG what a little miracle this is. Feels amazing!!

Toby in the new box. Yay!

toby-in-the-box

 

DianaK

Appreciations 1/26-2/5: spilt milk, support, staying, silliness, and Scrabble!

Laughing over spilt milk… especially when Sarah, Ida, and I take turns, each spilling spectacularly once, in the same place, during the course of one weekend. Hahaha!

Spill Gremlins….the ones we’ve determined are responsible for the milk (and subsequent vegetable) spills. What a funny house we live in! 😆

Delicious dinner of fish and chips. Thank you for the treat, Sarah!

Ida dancing around the living room to the Ultimate Family Dance Party station while Sarah and I do some couch dancing. 🤗

My new yard sign and my neighborhood’s commitment to supporting ALL of its residents.

stand-with-our-neighbors

Ida’s new addition to the “Nana upstairs, too?” request. Now when I’m about to leave to go back upstairs she says, “Nana, stay!” Oh, how I love that kid!! 💜

This most awesome card from my cousin Debb. She is so thoughtful and funny!

i-need-a-crown

Antibiotics that do their job quickly and well. Plus the cessation of continual coughing! 😆

Dinner with the Terri, Ellis, Sara, Rochelle and all the kiddos. What bliss.

Playing Scrabble with my mom! 💜

Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Eva Ibbotson, E.L. Konigsburg, and Cornelia Funke, all of whom brighten my life with their words!

 

DianaK

Appreciations 1/20-25: more bingo, fun appts, toddler language, clean floors!

The super fun call I got from my mom, telling me how much fun she had playing our new MDFUN bingo game at her doctor appointment. I thought this game could make appointments more fun for and create stronger connections between patients and care-givers. Early reports from my awesome beta-testers (my family), suggest that it does have that effect. Yay!

The inspiring photos and videos from all the marches. I was too sick to go, but it was so encouraging to see all those engaged people (with their clever signs 😊) out there. ❤️

OTC cold meds to take the edge off for a few hours. Phew.

Watching Ida discovering more and more language. I love it! 2 of my faves this week are:
“Getchu (get you) me, Mama!” to ask Sarah for snuggles or tickling and “Nana upstairs, too” to ask me to come downstairs with them to get her ready for bed. Sweet!

Making soup with Sarah as we both coughed our lungs out — and made fun of our sickly household…which then made us laugh-cough some more. One of most silly and fun sick days I’ve had. 😆diana-bingo-day-1

My own experience with the MDFUN bingo game. Wow! Even more laughs and smiles during my 4 hours of appointments than usual (and that’s saying a lot!). I love this.

All the new docs I’ve been working with this month. I really, really like the Diana Transplant Team so far! Of course, I am still planning to be a statistical outlier and not end up needing a new heart after all… but meanwhile, I feel like I’m in great hands as we get things lined up for that possibility.

Mckenzie, who very thoughtfully vacuumed the house so it’d be nice and clean for me when I got home from my long day of appointments and tests. Thank you, Mckenzie!

My mom and dad. Not only are they incredibly loving and supportive, but they are also smart, funny, delightful people whom I really enjoy spending time with. Love you guys!