Thanks. Yes, there will be a lot of pills. The anti-rejection drugs will all but destroy my immune system for a little while, but I'll be fine. One of them won't be covered by my insurance and will cost $1000/month, but luckily I won't have to take it for very long.
As it is, this isn't really all that bad. If you worked with me or just saw me around you'd never know anything was wrong with me. Well, other than being a soulless ginger. I can work and do most of the things I've always done ... I just wear out faster than I did 2 years ago. So, if I had to be stricken with something, this isn't so bad.
I mentioned it before that this diagnosis lead to a lot of very positive changes in my life, so there is a part of me that's grateful for it. I learned to be more kind because you never know what people might be dealing with. There are a lot of people that look perfectly normal that are dealing with a lot ... so just be kind. It also caused me to pause and reflect and think about my future, which lead to my divorce because I was in a marriage that just made me miserable. My wife now is one of the most beautiful people, with one of the purest hearts, that you'd ever meet. I'm definitely much happier there.
My ex was not positive and not supportive. I used to lift weights all the time, pretty heavy (bench workout was 275 for 8, 295 for 6, 315 for 4, then 295 for 6 and 275 for 8 again), but then when I got my diagnosis I had to restrict protein intake so I lifting like that was going to be counter productive without getting the protein in that I needed. So, I was lost. I started training for a triathlon ... long story short, we were at dinner, my triathlon was less than a month away and my son, who was 5, commented on what I was eating and asked why I was eating only that. My ex-wife said "your dad THINKS he's going to do a triathlon". That was the one moment where I was finally just like "**** this, I don't need this ***** in my life anymore".
Here I was ... I had to change something I loved ... but I couldn't just do nothing. I knew I wasn't stopping my disease, but I felt like I had to do SOMETHING so I just got in the best shape I could. And after all of that, just before my triathlon my then-wife says something like that.
My current wife is the exact opposite. So supportive, so pure of heart. And she gives better head too, so it's a win all around.
Anyway ... didn't mean to ramble on