The real Day +4 and this and that...

Today is day +4 and I got ahead of things yesterday when I called Monday day +4.  I guess it was wishful thinking on my part wanting to get this long ordeal over for Reid. 

Today he is still taking pain medication for the mouth and throat sores.  He's in considerable discomfort and doesn't really talk much anymore.  His body is covered with this crusty looking rash and I'm starting to think that the mouth and throat sores are really the same thing only internally.  All of this is caused by the one chemo drug.  The clinical trial is to determine how large a dose can be tolerated along with the other drugs in the study.  This one drug is a bear!

He is now running a fever...101.3.  They took him down earlier for a chest X-ray and I'm hoping the doctor will be in soon with an update.  When we took the pre-admission class one of the nurses told us that most do develop a fever at some point while the immune system is depressed.  Hopefully, this too will pass.

Yesterday he received another stack of mail.  Wonderful cards (some beautifully hand made), inspiring notes and letters, and some adorable drawings by children were in the pile.  I actually saw a half smile on his face as he whispered to me that I should open the large envelope.  Inside a four year old boy had sent him drawings of planes crashing.  Reid could relate since many years ago he did similar drawings.  It's a guy thing I guess.  There was also a very pretty drawing from Mallory.  Thank you everyone!



I did promise you a picture of one of our cats.  I was printing out some information on dolls from a CD so I could take it to the hospital and read.  (My Netbook doesn't have a CD drive.)  Anyway, whenever Zoom hears the printer she comes running.  It doesn't matter where she is in the house.

She loves to try and catch the paper coming out.



There was a little entertainment outside Reid's hospital room one day last week.  Three helicopters landed on the roof below in a period of a couple of hours.  One was Life Flight and I certainly hope the person they brought in is doing OK now.

I've been trying to keep up with the news from Japan.  It's a tragedy of such huge proportions that it's hard to even imagine what life must be like for the people impacted.  For a few years I've followed the blog of a lady that lives in Japan, but was born here.  She's a quilter and I believe I learned of her blog from my friend Karen at SewPrimitive Quilter.  I'm no quilter (I would never have the patience), but Tanya at Taniwa often shares information about her life in Japan and I always enjoy her posts.  She also has six cats and a dog (one less cat than us!).  She was the first person I thought of when I heard the news, but I had no idea where in Japan she lived.  Anyway, she never lost Internet access and has been posting daily reports.  It's very interesting to read her account of the events.  Be sure and go back and read her earthquake posts from the beginning.  (She was actually underground in a stone quarry when everything started happening!)



Thanks again for everything!