Christmas 2012, skin lesions, diastasis recti

     Every Christmas when we do a Christmas picture, I can't help but compare the current picture to the 2005 Christmas picture from when Denise was starting to recover. Denise continues to be in a season of relatively good health, and for that we are grateful. She has extreme fatigue and lingering issues with hearing, vision, cardiac, digestive, liver and other problems secondary to the cocci going to the brain (and elsewhere). But she's been upright and ambulatory for another year (and we hope for many, many more years)!
     On the cocci-related health front, the voriconazole continues to keep the cocci titers favorable, but Denise continues to experience the side-effect of the sun sensitivity. She had several precancerous skin lesions removed over the past months. Over summer during a consultation regarding repeated herniation, it was found that she has a diastasis recti (separation of vertical ab muscles). This is pretty common after childbirth, but in this case a big chunk of the cause may be from the massive quantities of fluid that repeatedly had to be removed from her when dealing with ascites while she was in the hospital.
     We are looking forward to the next Cocci Study Group, which will be held in Pasadena CA. Denise will get to go since it's in a non-endemic region this time. Sadly, one of the giants of cocci research and treatment, Dr. Hans Einstein, died in August 2012. His life's work contributed to Denise's survival, and he was always gracious in answering my dumb questions about Valley Fever. R.I.P. Dr. Einstein, and thanks.