A Bean’s Life

DAY 8

I don’t have any energy to whip up an interesting or very informative post.  It has been a pretty long weekend.  The good news is that Gavin is still in good spirits and has continued to be happy and playful.  He has been a little bit nauseated, we were quite unhappy on Saturday to discover that, without consulting us, his docs has decided to cut out one of his nausea-control drugs, because he had got through one day without throwing up.  It seems like a bizarre decision for these people when they should well know that the delayed nausea from these drugs often lasts TEN days or even more.

So we were taken by surprise when Gavin suddenly barfed yesterday afternoon after almost two stable days.  Then we realized it was because the med plan had been changed on us.  Obviously, we were both in a bit of a temper over that one.  I felt terrible as well, because I had abandoned my boys to attend Auntie’s engagement party which was hosted by Bubby and Da.  So I was laughing it up with family and eating beautiful hors d’oeuvres and petit fours while long-suffering Daddy was cleaning up barf.

On Saturday I picked up some foam mats for Gavin’s room and put them on the floor today with sheets under so we could have a little play space outside of the bed which was still “clean”. I’m so happy I did that because Gavin kept saying, “mat, play” for the rest of the day. I got there as early as I could this morning and Craig had a little break for a couple of hours before returning around lunch.  I then went off around one to meet my old friend Mollie for coffee nearby.  We managed to find each other despite having to dodge the Toronto Marathon that was on today! (These things always make me think, what did we do in the time before cell phones?)

I’m not really sure what we did all weekend – lots of laundry, I guess.  Craig returned with freshly-washed Monkey and Minnow this evening, and I had just left and was wandering in the supermarket when I got a text saying that the first barf of the day had happened and both M & M got it.  Yikes! Guess we’ve got more laundry tomorrow. So disappointing, after making it through the whole day vomit-free.  I hope it was not a harbinger of things to come.  Praying for a good night for my baby.

We are trying our best to keep Gavin occupied, and have had a lot of fun with some of the toys we brought in.  I absolutely love this button game I got him for his birthday, but we only opened a week or so ago. It is made by Alex, and is a great game to play in bed, and also has been good to get him really saying the names of the colours.  He’s finally advanced beyond blue and yellow! We’ve also been playing a lot of Lego, Little People games, doing puzzles and watching DVDs. He’s become a bit obsessed with The Backyardigans as I may have mentioned, but only wants to watch two episodes.  One is about a clean-freak pirate who sings a song about his ship being spotless. I find myself singing it as I constantly swab everything down with Virox wipes and alcohol pads. I also brought in a Swiffer and mopped the room myself this evening.  I figure it can’t hurt to do it a few times a day! (I should be getting money from the ad-man with the amount of brands I’ve mentioned in this paragraph – you’re welcome.)

We are hoping to have a relatively uneventful week without too much pain and suffering for Gavin. I still can’t quite fathom how much longer we have to go through this, it’s too difficult to contemplate. I met one young woman today who had just complete a full bone marrow transplant due to having aplastic anemia.  She was told that she could be looking at a hospital stay of 100 days, but managed to achieve complete engraftment in just 23 days.  Still, more than three weeks of isolation is difficult, especially for a teenager!

We are hoping to only be stuck in the room for about 10 more days, and can begin to emerge from the cocoon after that.  Thanks all for your constant prayers, and energy and I hope to get our first letters in the next couple of days! Must put myself to bed now.

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