The Week Going On

Monday night after Erek left was sad yet strangely peaceful. Just us girls again. Nadine was a bit achy and itchy . This may sound silly, but we ended up reading children's picture-books from the the house library, including old-standards Madeline and Curious George plus a silly book about two grandmas who disagree. It was hilarious, and the evening ended with laughter and smiles.

My first night alone with Nadine since this all started.
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I called the on-call doctor about Nadine's itchiness -- Dr. Milner thought it had to do with the Mercaptopurine (her nightly oral chemo medicine), and that it wasn't serious. Earlier, I had gotten her some Pedialyte to bolster her electrolytes without using Gatorade (with its additives), but the Pedialyte tasted so dreadful that she wouldn't drink it, so we compromised -- I bought one more bottle of Gatorade (the only option at that hour) and the next day I got her Gatorade powder, which has fewer additives than the bottled stuff and at least she likes it. Her appetite had gone down, which is why the extra electrolytes, in addition to plain liquids, were important.

ON TUESDAY, realizing that oranges can be peeled and are therefore okay, I washed and peeled an orange, arranged the slices prettily, brought them to sleeping Nadine, and left. When I returned, she smiled about the orange slices. She also felt better. Yay.

She went "up and down" for the early part of the day, sometimes lying down and looking forlorn,asking for my company -- I cuddled with her and held her hand. The day, cold and dreary, matched my mood. After breakfast she wanted to see if she remembered "Mousetrap", a game on the shelves -- I got it down, but there were no instructions and neither of us got very far. I plan to get a fresh game to contribute to the house. It started to rain.

Laurie Johnson, the nurse practitioner, called and said Nadine's counts were nicely high, and that they might stay up. It's possible she'll be able to drop in on the contra dance next week. Laurie also said that the clot wasn't considered too worrisome -- if it had been, it would have been treated more aggressively. She assured me that my concerns hadn't been frivolous.
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A WALK AND AN OBSERVATION

I remember that when Nadine got fussy as a baby, if she wasn't hungry the only cure would be to bring her outside into fresh air for a walk. These days, walking outside often helps her feel better too, even if it's hard to get it started. For the record, it works on me as well -- even when it's bitter-cold out (my un-favorite), if I feel yucky I periodically slam on multi-layers of down and wool and haul off for a snow-laden walk, and suddenly I'm okay. Walks have been a mainstay for me lately.

Late Tuesday afternoon, I coaxed Nadine out for a walk, as she didn't look as weak as earlier although she still felt "blah".

It worked! On went her pink fleece hat again -- it had stopped raining but was sun-and-cloud mixture, so she could wear shorts. We went down the dirt path to the river trail, and walked jauntily if slowly to the right admiring the gently curved path, the greenery, and an ancient-looking huge tree wiht huge globular contours on its thick trunk. We walked slowly but she had "oomph". We rested on a bench facing the canal -- a canalway trail map in front showed we could walk this trail for hundreds of miles! After Nadine felt she'd rested enough, we continued on to an old cement bridge, on which we took photos of each other against the scene of canal and bridges. She wasn't up for going further, so we returned, stopping at the bench again, and climbed the very gentle path to the house, refreshed.

Nadine mentioned that she can walk well, but still has trouble if she tries to put on a burst of speed.
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The house, which accommodates 20 families, was developing a "party" atmosphere at times. Tinkling conversations appeared in some lounges. It had been nice although subdued when we first arrived. Suddenly there seemed to be an influx of chilren, and also adults who shared exuberance as well as sorrows. I hadn't spent much time there while Nadine was hospitalized -- it was a quick dash downstairs, breakfast, pack food for the day, rush out to the hospital, slog back late at night, and flop into bed. Now that Nadine was staying at the house, I was there more often. It was a perfect respite and half-way place for Nadine with me. She perioically appeared, masked or not depending on the circumstances, for meals, relaxation, puzzles, cooking, and conversations. I had met a lady, Sharon, whose 13-year-old son had a kidney transplant. Her father is a friend of my husband -- they live in Buffalo. Her daughter Rianna is 11 and a quintessence of sweetness and "spice", dancing ballet with an equivalent passion that Nadine applies to music. Sharon is exuberant and we had some boisterous interchanges even while sharing our children's stories. I visited with our new Amish friends, Melvin and Mary, whose daughter amazed me -- in the hospital, with a tracheotomy (tube in the throat), she sat with happiness in her eyes. I met many ladies who had delivered babies at between 2 and 3 pounds, and under, who had to wait to hold their newborns, and then it was for a short time. There were parents supporting children with cancer and other illness. The cooperation and caring was amazing, as was the humor that abounded in this beautiful place.

Dinner that night was a Mexican "fiesta" with excellent baked beans, prepared by a local mother's group. One of them expressed an interest in homeschooling; I quickly reverted to my homeschool-board-member role and got her an info packet.

That night Nadine and I read more children's books -- a fun ending to a mottly day.