Spring is my favorite time of year and it always has been. It possibly stems from having my birthday in early May but having grown up in Maine I think its more likely that spring meant we were done with the snow (most years). I love the sun, the temperature, the flowers, the blooming trees, and most of all the smell. In New England that smell is mud but I love it anyway. Spring this year has been more special to me than any other for a number of reasons including.
1. I now have two spring birthdays. My transplant anniversary and my actual birthday.
2. I missed spring last year. I was inside most of the time and fighting for my life.
3. We're back with the New England mud! Last year we were in Maryland and it was already hot!
4. We have little doubt that this is one of many more spring seasons that I will enjoy!
Tomorrow I will head down to Maryland to check in with my team and see if, once and for all, we can figure out why I've been spiking fevers seemingly at random. On the one hand it seems like a long trip for a few fevers but on the other hand where better to go for a fever than the place that saved my life! The hardest part of these trips is being away from my family for "two sleeps" (that's 3yr. old speak for "two nights"). The second hardest part is the emotions that are brought up each time I travel to NIH. It is easier today than in was last fall but going back to the place where I spent so much time, so very sick, is...difficult.
This trip will be different, because it is spring. I will return to New England on Friday and it will still be spring and I will stop and smell the mud.
