1/9/09: Update #4: Stir Crazy

You could pick almost any Friday night in the past year or so and you would be able to find us sitting at the bar at Cava. We would have either walked there together or met there after our workouts. We are not there this Friday. I can promise you that right now, we are really missing it. But we will be there again. Today was a good day, if maybe a little uneventful. Our nurse was delightful and everything is just kind of going as it should. John and I typically are the first to say "if you're bored, then you're boring." Well, I think we are going to amend that to disclude a scenario when you are in the hospital, full of tubes, only have basic cable, and are confined to one floor. In that scenario, no matter how interesting you are, you may get a little bored. We got a little bored today. But we went for a walk....
After our first walk, I had John stand up next to his bed while I gave him his bath and changed his dress. Apparently standing did him in because he was exhausted after that. good to know. So I went to get some coffee (I feel bad having any snack in front of him, since he is limited to ice chips, but I still have to eat and its actually more fun to have snacks so we can at least talk about them, even if not sharing them.)

Speaking of snacks, that's one of the hardest things. For both of us. John can't eat. John hasn't eaten anything since Monday, when he was on a liquid diet with a bowel cleansing routine. We are anxiously awaiting his guts to wake up so we can start down the road to real food again. If you don't know this about us, we are kind of big on eating together and making it a big deal. We have dinner together every night, with rare exception, always have. We eat out all the time and can spend an entire day around deciding where to stop for a beer and some sort of treat. So not only can he not eat at all, but I have no one to eat with (I know, friends would come to solve that, but right now, what I miss is eating with John.). I'm surviving on apples and granola bars while I'm at the hospital and I am eating real food (peas and nachos, sometimes even a combination of the two..) when I get home. but we are both ready for us to have a meal together, even if it is only chicken broth.

Something great is that one of the tubes that connects to the wall was removed today and one of the iv sites was taken out. any less tubes are a good thing. Plus, now we know enough to be able to make ourselves mobile for a walk with no nurse to help us. We asked if we could be pointed toward a scale and John is weighing in at 192. now, I have never known him this thin but for one thing, he's going to bulk back up and another thing is that he has to, because he's a bobblehead right now. But a cute one, and a big flirt with the nurses:

We strolled through the cancer ward tonight, hand in hand, and walked to all of the windows that were there and looked at the pictures on the "pet wall" and talked about which food in the world would taste the best and even though he's not in the shape to give me a good romantic dip, I still got a twirl....

Visiting can happen tomorrow between 12:30 and 4. Call me if you want to swing by so we don't stack up. No one can stay long and at one point in that time, we'll have to do a walk, so you may have to wait outside if we're preparing or just coming back. Every couple minutes his energy level can change so keep that in mind.

PS: Thank you all for the emails and comments. I have 8 pages of the printed notes that I am taking him tomorrow to read.