November 2, 2011

It was a long day. A long day that did not clearly separate from yesterday and today. As the saying goes, you don't go to the hospital to get rest. We were in a shared room - which means double the buzzers and beeps. I was thankful; however, no one said a peep about me leaving. My chair was pulled as close as it could get - we held hands - and the nurses were nice enough to see I had no intentions of going anywhere.
I made a fresh pot of coffee around six. Ran saw a commercial for food and the nausea officially began to kick in. The Dr. was there at 8:05 this morning - we were his first stop just as he had promised. He ordered the new variety of meds and pushed through the paperwork for dismissal.
Straight downstairs for the new norm - 9:15 Super Hero Radiation treatment. Stomach upset but felt better as we walked around. Afterwards, we waited to meet with Amy, our dietitian. Very nice. Shared her formula for figuring out just how many bottles of Ensure Plus someone Randy's size must drink in order to be considered properly nourished. Ends up Ran is a "seven can a dayer" (which I know is not a real word)! Gotta love science! Of course, this is only if he is not eating anything else. Also gave me some sites to look at for recipes. We were both hoping for something a little more cut and dry, like. . .Day 1 - Eat this. Day 2 - Eat this. Day 3 - if you can't eat that then try this. No such luck. It's just all about calories, protein, and hydration.
A quick visit with Peggy about future Dr. appointments, meetings and such (note to self - get a white board for a visual calendar) and then out the door for our slow walk back to the Hope Lodge. Seemed like forever since we'd been there.
Dropped our stuff off and took a quick inventory of what was needed at the store before dropping off prescriptions and getting a few items to get through the week. Within the next 30 minutes the exhaustion set in which added to the bellyache - not to mention some very hard uncontrollable hiccups. Without eating Ran went to bed. We woke around 5:30 and I went to grab the magic pills so maybe Ran could eat. Made a few good attempts but really not feeling up to it. We watched the Blind Side and Randy drifted in and out of sleep in the recliner. Oh, did we mention that every room in the HL has two leather recliners? Needless to say - it won't be long before the Hobo House finally has one. There will need to be some rearranging but the battle has officially been lost!
Tid Bits:
On Tuesday each week Panara and another local bakery donate breads, bagels, and baguettes - you've never seen so much bread.
As I returned the dishes to the kitchen at 10:30 this evening I met LeeAnne. A woman who just spent the day making at least three dozen cinnamon rolls from scratch. She was just getting the last batch out of the oven to ice. She suggested I take one as they would disappear quickly in the morning. One tray was off limits she said, as it was for her husband, her reason for making them. She stated that she can't eat them anymore (due to where she is at in treatment) - but she sure loves smelling them!
We are humbled a bit more each day.