zen.org Communal Weblog

I wonder what B will say when he realizes that all his friends and family now know that he had a shower?

It made a huge huge huge difference to him.  It took a while, and was awkward keeping the damn central line dry (B held a towel over it), but I scrubbed that head with shampoo and rinsed it out and all I heard was a deep “Aaaaahhhhhh……”  Clean clothes, clean sheets, and dinner waiting for him when he got out.  What else could a guy want?

While he was eating his dinner, and I was packing up my stuff, one of us said something pithy, and he smiled.  He smiled that great crinkly-eyed Kehoe smile that I love, where he’s truly happy for a moment.  I haven’t seen that smile in almost a week now, and seeing it again gave me more hope than almost anything else.

He got even more platelets today.  Interesting fact: if you have been pregnant, you can’t donate platelets. It changes something in the physiology of the platelet and they can’t use it.  So most platelet donors are male. I looked on today’s bag and it had the donation date: March 10.  Amazing. Last week someone was selfless enough to donate, and today it is fortifying B.

Today’s shoutouts: Nurse A, who said she was going to start reading the blog /waves hi; Kamilla, for taking P after school and giving his bottomless stomach dinner; Anne, Viv and the DSP community, who I’ve been told have started a dinner rota for us; the talented Rachael, who strengthens me with her written word (yes, you.). You’re all superstars!

Oh, and no, no hair came out with the shampoo.  So he’s still fully bearded and haired…I think a bald B is something that would be interesting to see, but I’m not quite ready for it yet!

Apparently last night B had some weird dreams, like he said bad acid trip level dreams.  He woke up a few times with them, really freaked out.  He thought it was because of his medicine to bring down the fever, but talking to Nurse D and Nurse A, they said he just got paracetamol.  We realized all together that it was the fever itself (39.5C) that was causing the nightmares.  Which makes sense cause when he’s napping when I’m here, he moves like a freaking puppy, dreaming about chasing things I guess.

Today was a scan basically of him from the waist up.  Can’t wait to see those, if they let me.  They just want to make sure about if he has an infection: the bloods aren’t showing any infection at all, they think the fevers are a side effect of the chemo.  Which does make things interesting, but overall, if that’s one of the few side effects he has?  OKAY! We’re fine with that!  He hasn’t had any nausea or pain (other than blood draws and the bone marrow aspiration), which I’m really grateful for.

He’s resting again, now, because he had to stand up for the scans and hold his arms over his head.  Took a lot of out of him.