Life at the Med Spa

Hello, all. Well we‘re halfway through week two and the walls aren't closing in on us yet. We have settled into more of a routine. We have zhuzh’d up the place a bit to make it feel more like home. We have a fancy Folgers coffee “station”, a mini-fridge, and a fully loaded snack basket (thanks to care packages) to host our guests in style. It’s like we are in a somewhat dated NYC efficiency that happens to have a doorman by way of a keypad and nurses station. It has been freshly painted in soothing shades of sand and lavender. 😳 a color palette that often comes to mind when trying to evoke feelings of calm....said no one ever. We have a wall of inspirational quotes, cards, and drawings that is growing daily. All appreciated!

I've been heading home for a few hours each day for the last 5-6 days while C works. They offer a family shower and laundry room here, but thankfully it is easy to just go home. And I fear my proclivity for cleanliness wouldn’t pair well with a semi-public shower. We also prefer to have a better handle on his food by making most of it at home. It keeps it organic, with lean protein, healthy, and we know exactly what is going in his body. You know, besides the huge doses of chemo/meds! Another reason to go home - to cook! And I’ve had some good helpers!

Not to brag or anything, but our room seems to be the place to be. 🤷‍♀️ The nurses stop in often to say hello - even the ones we don’t have anymore. Or they tell us they've been secretly checking his numbers to see how he’s progressing. We try to bring some treats for them and I know some extra special treats are en route from the bakery in Indianapolis where C normally spends his weeks. One of our doctors came to hang with us this afternoon for no other reason than to say hi and cuz partaaay in Rm 1114!

C had his 5th chemo on Saturday night and then we moved to the 8-10 day waiting period. They call it his count recovery period. He is neutropenic right now - simply put, his white blood cells are zero and so is his immune system. This is intentional. During this recovery period the residual chemo continues working and they wait to see his cells start to regenerate. They will do another bone marrow biopsy on Monday 25th and pending those results we will move on to another phase of taking a drug called granix to stimulate white cell production even further. He has been responding very well to everything so far, so we fully anticipate his results to be what we want, and are focused on just that!

For his comfort level, I‘m glad to report his petticoat is gone. For the built-in entertainment, I must confess I’m missing it a little. He arrived on the 11th at 174lbs, he jumped to 196lbs, and weighed in today at 169lbs. So he’s feeling a real “weight off”. 🥁

It will come as no surprise that C takes his job very seriously and tackles it like any other challenge. We get up somewhere between 6:45-8:45am depending on how much sleep we are able to get the night before (thank goodness for sleep masks!!!). After some quick morning grooming and his coiffing (not really 😜), we are pretty much headed out to exercise. I make a cup of coffee and we are off. He has learned that 26 laps around the unit equals one mile so we try to do 32 for the day. I’m not on all laps with him. 🏃🏻Sometimes he’s just out there Forrest Gumpin’ on his own. I’m sure there will be more some days and less others....and now he has added the recumbent bike too.

Obviously I’m biased, but he’s a pretty darn good patient! He works hard, he’s compliant (with a sharp sarcasm they appreciate), he’s courteous to everyone that comes in, and he even holds the door open for me when we head out of our room or pass someone in the hall. It‘s nice to not lose that normalcy of chivalry during this strange reality we find ourselves in. To whatever degree we can attribute ones attitude as part of the fighting/healing process, his sure seems to be contributing to his body responding to treatment.

So far no side effects of the chemo round. It’s in the 5-7 days after a round that we would start to see them and thus far, he feels great. We continue to hope they stay at bay. He had some things pop up this week - painful RED eyes, skin itching without rash, sinus infection - all requiring CT scans, peripheral blood draws, chest x-rays, nasal swab (brain scratch 😬), but all came back negative and symptoms were quickly alleviated with the right meds. And just like that, he was back to “normal“. They are extremely vigilant about getting in front of any potential infection as it could be very serious while he’s immunocompromised. He has a lingering cough that he’s had for over a month which they aren’t worried about, but it is very annoying for him.

Lastly, there was a huge turning point in feeling more normal this week when my aunt made him his PICC shirts. It was a game changer to get out of the hospital dress (I mean gown) and back into normal clothes!!! He was so relieved and excited. See pics below.

I feel badly not individually mentioning so many of you and what you have done to help with medical connections, handling all house related things, gardening, what you have brought to us, or called/texted, checked on us, sent funny pictures/stories to keep us sane from the mundane schedule, ruining my design style with a buc-ees throw blanket, personally helped me with things, etc. It takes a village. Or a mom, sibling, family, friends. ❤️ I know Ellen (Craig’s mom) can’t wait to get here and give her boy a hug! I’m sure he will be requesting his favorite brisket dish of hers and we will be playing some competitive rounds of hospital canasta!

I‘m including some pictures from the last few days and a funny text exchange between us today. The indignities of a hospital stay and all topics being open to discussion! 😂🙈

Hope this finds you all well,

C & A

P.S. Having some trouble with the pic piece of this so will have to upload separately and get a tutorial from my brother....sorry!