My Big Gay Thanksgiving (And My Big Non-Gay Remission)

If you've caught a glimpse of the Twitter in the little box to the right of the blog, then you're aware of two things: My family is crazy and I'm now in remission. Let's talk about the family first. Yesterday was a weird day (and not just because we ate at a decent hour). It was a fantastic day but I will never understand some of the decisions my kin make. First of all, Crazy Aunt brought two youngins to dinner. These turned out to be the kids of her latest "friend" He had to work so she invited them to spend the day with us. And, oh by the way, she thought the daughter would be "perfect" for me. She believed this because the girl likes hockey. Yep. That's all she based it on. Turns out, it was her brother who took an interest in me. And my DC cousin took an interest in him. Yeah...So she's all up on him and trying to flirt and as soon as she gets up to go help with something, he makes his way to my side of the room and starts asking all kindsa questions. I figured out what was up pretty quick so I shut him down and said I was straight. His response? "How straight though?". Good lord. Re-enter my cousin who takes a seat next to him and starts flirting again. I got up and went into the kitchen where I informed Crazy Aunt, the best friend and everyone else in the room that the dude was hitting on me. My mom found it amusing, Crazy Aunt asked if I was "interested in that" and the best friend lamented that of course he was gay since all of the females thought he was "super hot". (When I told Crazy Aunt that I was not "interested in that", she said, "Well, I never know these days mijo. And you are a whore so...". God, I love that woman). The best friend took it upon herself to tell DC cousin that the guy was gay and to "stop making a damn fool" of herself. And this should've been the end of the story. But it's Thanksgiving at OUR house so things never end where/how/when they're supposed to. This dude ended up crossing paths with my gay cousin (brother of DC cousin, ironically), who reluctantly brought his on-off boyfriend to the festivities. And gay cousin and gay dude ended up hooking up by night's end (after which gay dude AGAIN propositioned me and asked how much liquor it would take for me to go home with him. Really? You're gonna hit on me AFTER you've hit (or been hit by) my cousin?). My advice was solicited after the hook up and all I could tell the cousin was that he had to stop dating the boy toy. This is his umpteenth slip up in the past few months that they've been back together. And it's a conversation we've had before. I feel bad for his boyfriend because I was the one who introduced them and he's a genuinely nice guy who is totally enamored with the cousin. But they just can't seem to get it together. I hope it works out but I don't know.

Prior to all of the Turkey Day gayness, there was the news that I appear to be in remission. The doc wasn't sure at first, my levels changed rather quickly after my last transfusion, but another test confirmed it - I'm is in remission. And it is fantastic news. It's not something I thought would ever happen. I think I'm still processing it actually. This means no more transfusions, no more experimental IV's, no more weekly blood draws and no more high dose meds. It also means no surgery to have my spleen removed, something that was going to happen in February. I'm beyond thrilled about that. I can take the poking and prodding of transfusions and I can even handle the emotional rollercoaster of 100 mg of prednisone, but spleen removal was not someting I was happy about. I'll still have to take meds everyday, likely for the rest of my life, but they'll start weaning me down to a lower dose next month. The hope is that my levels will stay normal-ish on 10 mg a day and that I'll be down to that dose by the end of January. I also hope that my emotions go back to being normal. I know some of the...shall we say erratic-ness of my moods is because there is so much medication coursing through my system all the time. I will not miss that. I'm kinda excited though. This is a new chapter and, hopefully, a very good one.