When you're up you're up

Yes, just like the Grand Old Duke of aYork, "When they were up they were up" but on the same token "when they were down they were down".  And at the moment, aside from losing my hair I feel really great.  And honestly, I don't care about that.  More than half the guys I know are experiencing some form of baldness as we all descend into middle age.  So realistically I just feel like one of the lads.  To the women I know that are going through (or have been through) this process I really admire the courage you have all displayed.  I understand how much harder this must be for you all.

OK, so you probably want to know why I titled this post the way I have.  Simply, right now I'm up.  After chemo mobilisation I was down, but certainly not down and out.  But while I'm up I am going to make the most of it.  Right now I feel really great and with both my cystinuria and CIDP under control I feel like I need to get out there and live a little.  After all, even though most people with cystinuria or CIDP (like me) have to organise their schedule around their doctors appointments etc... I still firmly believe that life is for living and while I am "up" I am going to make the most of it.

And I had a splendid day.

I am not telling you all this to gloat or be nasty.  When you have a chronic disease you have to make the most of every good day you have and that is precisely what I intended.  So in the morning I went to theArt Institute of Chicago.  Where as most museums I have been to I have managed to crawl myself through at a snails pace the Art Institute not so.

I think of a scene in the movie "Pretty Woman", when Richard Gere is talking about opera where he basically says you love it or you don't.  If you don't love it, you can grow to have a wonderful appreciation of it but you cannot ever love it.

Now, don't get me wrong I certainly enjoy art, and I truly appreciate the work and the meaning behind each piece.  But if it doesn't tell me a story or I don't get it straight away I am not interested.  To me each piece has to have meaning or tell me something I didn't already know.  I guess that is why I love museums.  To quote Spock from Star Trek, they are "fascinating".  So although I breezed through the place much quicker than I expected I really did appreciate and enjoy it although I did not love it.  My favourite exhibits would have been the indigenous American history artwork and the Picasso's they had on display.

After that I walked through Millennium Park which was right next door.  I saw some street performance and the Silver Bean.  Which is actually called Cloud Gate but all the native Chicago folk call it the Silver Bean.  I do have pictures, but I can't be bothered to download them right now so I will share them with you next time.  In the evening I went to the Ice Hockey to see the Black Hawks play.  Unfortunately, the got hammered by the Nashville Predators 6 -1.  But it was still fun and I had a good time, which brings me to now.

I do understand that my fun in Chicago will soon be coming to an end as I will be going in to North Western Hospital for my stem cell transplant in just over a week.  But I don't live for my disease, I live for me and in the meantime I'm going to make every good day count.  Stay well:)