David's parents and sister's family (The Cliffords) were he visiting for a few days. It was nice to see family. The kids gave our cats a run for their money so much so that Colin (our nephew) had dreams about him one night. It was reported to us that he yelled out, "Bob! Bob!" in his sleep. Hahaha we yell at him a lot when we're awake! Thursday they were planning on heading to portland kind of early but my hair lady has tues/wed off so I asked them to come over thurs morning so I could go get my hair done. It was so nice to have someone else take care of me for a couple of hours. I figured that I would try to only worry about the things I CAN control. My hair I can control. Thanks to his family for that extra time!
David was up in the chair wednesdsay and thursday (more on that in a bit) and we tried the ace bandages around his ankles/feet/calves and it seemed to have slowed down the swelling a bit. The only real drawback has been that since I have to do it tight enough to compress his legs enough to keep the swelling down then his legs look a little like mummy legs for a little while. It's better than the massive swelling he was getting before although after 2 days up it's pretty swollen again. I guess we'll take a couple days out of the chair with his feet elevated in bed.
Thursday Dave was in the chair for chemo. It went pretty smooth for the most part. The ramp was fantastic and easy. We said we only needed one person to help move him and when the driver saw his name he decided to get another person because he remembered the steps and he was really excited to see the ramp. They picked us up an hour early because they had a tight schedule but we ate in the cafeteria and I think it was really a morale boost for both of us. Just like our normal lunch dates we used to have. Of course we eat all our meals together anyway but out at a "restaurant" just feels more normal somehow. The treatment was easy, only one poke, his blood pressure is actually a little more "normal" and was 70 over 120 which was the same bp the nurse got at home today. We feel like that's an improvement over the 60 over 100 he WAS getting. Things are looking good for now. We talked to the dr about getting another MRI and whether he would recommend that. He basically said that eventually yes he wants to do that, he doesn't really have a timeline in mind but that as long as David isn't getting worse he feels confident in saying, "your scan looks good" without even having a scan. Dr also reduced the steroid dose and by the time we go back in 2 weeks Dave will have 2 mg twice a day. Step in the right direction.
When we were done it took transport almost an hour to come get us. That part sucked. if only Dave could transfer to the car, transport would be so much easier. Maybe someday... (pipe dream or something to strive for?) Today he's pretty tired, like usual, after being up in the chair and chemo. It's a hang out day. Last night I slept so well, I must have been really tired. I fell asleep at the other end of the bed while trying to type up a blog post. The TV was on, the lamp was on, I had an extra blanket cocooned around me.... Dave woke up and said it took a couple minutes to actually wake me up to get me to turn off the TV. I fell back to sleep before even getting the lamp off or turning around in bed. At 4 when my alarm went off to give him meds I woke right up, got up and took care of everything and was all confused about how the tv was off but the lamp was still on. I didn't remember anything about waking up! Ahhh sleep. Then we slept in until 9. It was fantastic! I guess we both had a busy week.
Last night when we got home from the dr I went to a PTO meeting at school. It felt good to do something "normal" although there were a lot of volunteer opportunities coming up that I really wanted to volunteer for every one of and restrained myself. I'm learning my limits. I WANT to do everything but I know I'm pretty much at capacity. They were also planning the 8th grade festivities, Owen is a 7th grader but I'm glad to know what we have in store for next year and one of the things they're planning is the dance which is right up my alley when it comes to decorating and such. I might have to get someone to hang out with Dave while I do some of that even though it's not for my kid it's still for the school and I love being crafty!
While I was gone Owen got to spend some time with his Dad and I heard that even though they didn't spend the whole time chatting they got some good nerdy father/son time in. It's important for Owen to have that, not only because David is sick but because Owen is 13 and it's good for him to have that positive male influence.
Oh, so Dave's mom is going through her journals and writing biographies for her kids with stories about their lives from when they were born until they got married. She gave us the birth to ten portion of that biography and while we haven't read the whole thing yet Dave and I were giggling reading some of the little kid stories and we thought some of them would be fun to share so I'll occasionally add one to the blog.These are as told by his mother.
"We took a family vacation in our Mobile Traveler that summer and stopped one night at a rest area in eastern Idaho that had a cafe just down the road a bit. We all piled out of the camper, and David, 4, told me he saw something flash in the sky. I told him it was a sign on front of the cafe, but no , he insisted it was up in the clouds. Again, I explained it as the revolving sign on the cafe, and I left. David then turned to Chris (his brother, who later told his mom), and said, "Mom doesn't know anything about space ships."
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