Day +108 Give or Take

Colt State Park, Bristol, RI on a recent walk

I went to our local bagel store this morning. It was the first public indoor place I've gone to that's not a hospital in four months. It was a calculated risk: I'd be in the store less than five minutes, I would need to touch very few things, and I would be masked. But there would be maybe 10-15 unmasked people in a relatively small footprint. 

The transformation to normality happens in tiny increments, the progress of which can be hard to notice in the minute, like watching your kids grow up (pretty much there), or your hair come in (not yet). The past weeks have been good ones, driven largely by two related events. The GI issues that were affecting my daily life have subsided, and at +97 days, just shy of the advertised 100-day milestone, I was cleared for take out food. Together, this has meant more options for eating. In the last two weeks, we've had Chinese food, pizza, Thai food, and of course bagels. It's also given me the confidence to restore morning coffee to my daily routine. 

First Take Out Meal!

But it's not just the return of a more normal course of meals. I've been walking a bit more each day and noticing that the small inclines I encounter on my daily walks are no longer leaving me short of breath. I won't be running a 5K anytime soon (hopefully in 2024!) but I was able to slowly jog about a quarter-mile last weekend. 

As we come up on the four-month mark, it's tempting to accelerate the return to the way things were -- to begin to socialize more with friends and family, to do more around the house, to return to my office occasionally, to frequent non-crowded stores.  But on this marathon of recovery, we're only mid-way through the race. And I may be having a good couple of miles, so to speak, but there may be tougher stretches to come. My blood counts may wobble; we may need to make adjustments. 

So before we hit fast forward, we'll just pause and enjoy the subtle changes -  taking longer, faster walks; requiring fewer hours of sleep (in the first couple months, I needed about 10-12 hours a day!); having more energy; and of course, eating fresh bagels. 

Along the bike path in Barrington, RI on a recent walk