January 2014 Part 1

Last week Chris hit 80+ days post transplant. Incredible. I remember a few months ago praying that he would make it to his transplant! This month, he is recovering from the transplant and doing chemo. About 1 week of chemo every month for a year.

It tires him out. And this last round included 2 days of intense nausea. One day I was driving Chris home from chemo and he told me to keep driving in a certain direction, so (foolish girl that I am), I do it. Finally he points out my window and says, "There! That is where I puked on the way to the hospital. [pause] Oooohhhh, and it's still there!"

Luckily, I was driving the in-law's stick shift and was too preoccupied to see the puked-on snowy gutter corner. I'm just warning you, if you're a couple blocks away from the hospital and he starts giving you driving directions, ask where he is taking you before you comply!

 

This is what outpatient chemo looks like. He gets a cool recliner, a TV that lays on it's side no matter how many times you fix it, a first rate view of all the other patients coming and going to clinic appointments (it's nice to see all our friends), endless water refills and heated blankets, and of course, nausea meds and chemo. The plastic chair next to him is for me.

 

He likes it when I read to him during treatment or entertain him with my Jelly Belly-Jelly Bean Game. [pop a jelly bean in your mouth and guess it's flavor *without* the list of flavors] "I don't know what this flavor is; it's like it intended to be a tropical flavor, but ended up tasting like the inside of the paper you wrap around a crayon." Erm. Not that I've ever licked the paper that goes on a crayon...anyway. Moving on.

  

Other duties include snack dispersal, heated blanket retrieval, giving scheduled meds, and hitting the Silence Button on his pump and alerting the nurse.

 

Some of the other cancer patients say they don't know how we do this with little children. Sure, it's tough, but honestly, I don't know how they do it without children! They keep us busy. And laughing.

Before chemo this month, Chris and I got a date while he still felt OK. We've been picking up tips from the other patients. We went through the In-N-Out Drive-Thru at 10:30 in the morning. And then we went to a movie matinee on a weekday. We brought lots and lots of sanitizing wipes.

Matthew was already at school, but these little monkeys sent us off with big, orange-y smiles.

 In other news, I told this guy "no treats." So he snuck a piece of chocolate to the bathroom and ate it there. He doesn't seem to mind getting busted.