Clear Sailing

Once last Friday came, it was finally "clear sailing" for the week-end. After being scarily sick, Nadine was finally feeling better, and was nice and cheerful; therefore, so was I. Raymi got to spend time with his sister when she was feeling good.

On Thursday evening Nadine's friend Rafi brought over an amazing 18X24 inch ink line-drawn portrait of Nadine, with wonderful textures of her and the treed background; I got a nice visit with Diana, his mom. On Friday I rushed out to find a frame to protect (and enhance)the drawing.

Later on, Nadine's friend Claire and her mom Betty came to visit, and the two girls got a chance to laugh together while Betty and I took a long, satisfying walk in the rain, each of us carrying one of Betty's beautiful transparent green umbrellas.

Nadine felt well but still was pretty weak from having been sick -- we ventured out together and she managed to walk past a grand total of (about) five houses. On Saturday Raymi brought out a new game he'd brought to the hospital and Raymi, Nadine and I happily stayed up together. Nadine's appetite came back, and we shared some really nice dinners, including an outstanding one with rice noodles, tofu, shrimp, and sauce. At first she'd only take a few bites; by the end of the week-end she was able to feast. Jessie the nurse had come on Thursday to check her. Her blood counts were wonderful.

By Saturday Nadine was looking fine, and on Sunday she looked perfect.

Nadine had hoped to go to Claire's Gilbert and Sullivan performance, but it wasn't the right time to take any chances of "catching something" after the past week. She was scheduled to get her new "port" finally put in on Monday, and had a huge chemo session (spinal injection of medicine plus regular intravenous chemo plus more) scheduled for Tuesday at the clinic. If she got sick again it would be a disaster, and mercifully she was okay with it.

On Sunday I was encouraged to go to it. After some apprehension, I went -- my first real solo recreational "drive-off" since May, and I admit that I was glad get away. After spending some nice time with Nadine and Raymi, I drove off to Pultneyville. I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh air and watching the excellent performers inside from a prime front seat in the balcony. I enjoyed Claire's fun nuances in the comedy, and was impressed at her choreography. I knew Nadine was well taken care of. I arrived back at the house feeling renewed.

It was the first week-end Barry didn't get up here. The cat, Felicity, had been spayed on Tuesday and wasn't doing well, including not eating. Barry needed a well-deserved rest anyway, and the cat recovered after having some love and cuddling.

On Sunday evening, it looked like Nadine had her full strength bounding back. We took a walk and she made it, at a brisk pace, all the way down Brooksboro Drive to Bridgeboro, and then almost to Salt Road. And back in fine shape.

That night, I had to muddle through changing Nadine's dressing all by myself. Jessie the nurse couldn't come, and her new port was being put in the next day at the hospital. I was pretty nervous about it, even though I'd done it at the clinic with the nurse watching. Raymi wanted to watch, which he deserved -- still it made me more nervous. I assembled the supplies, a job in itself, chose a "staging area" of two wooden chairs and carefully disinfected them, installed Nadine on a clean sheet on top of a bed, put on clean gloves, and went to work. It felt awkward -- I got the bandage off. I was supposed to leave the dressing on if it hadn't gotten squish, but change it if it was squishy. It was half squishy and half firm. I removed the gloves and called Jessie the nurse, who mercifully answered -- she said to squirt saline onto the firm part of the dressing to wet it and then change it. It worked. Raymi helped by opening up packages of supplies. Nadine was pretty grumpy (understandably) and I was still nervous. I poked in the Aquacel to stuff the wound, put on the Allevyn bandage, and was finally done. Nadine and I both cheered up afterwards.

We had to get to bed early, even Nadine, as we were leaving the house early on Monday before going to the hospital for Nadine's port insertion.

But we still had time for much merriment on Sunday evening first.