Leading a Dual Life

By morning, he is a quiet IPOP patient, sitting patiently in his chair in the corner waiting for the lab results. By afternoon, he is a grubby mechanic, fussing about all the things that are broken that he didn't know about.

When we left home this morning, we were prepared to be told that we had to stay in Baltimore because Jon noticed some swelling in one of his legs last night. So when the doctor looked at his legs and saw how puffy they were (not very), he said his own ankles and feet look much worse than that after an airplane trip. He was unconcerned since it was both legs and not very bad -- it's just that we had never seen any puffiness in Jon's ankles before. The doctor said it is absolutely to be expected and he should just keep his ankles above his knees and his knees above his heart whenever possible. Hmm. Okay.

As always, it took a few hours to be excused. We learned that his platelets are climbing fast (now at 33,000) and everything looks good. We went back to our city apartment -- still fully stocked with everything we need -- and had some lunch and then we headed for Loudoun. Jon got a good nap.

I hilled the potatoes and did a little mowing and spaded for a future tomato patch (that's three different tractors, three different activities, so good). Jon was trying to do one thing (put some new knives on the flail mower) but he found that he didn't have a working loader or a working air compressor. So it was a day of sideways motion, figuring out next steps to make those repairs. By the time we left Loudoun, he was a lot less cranky. And I had remembered that I have really been missing the Loudoun farm as much as anything for all these weeks. 

Jon is cooking dinner. He isn't particularly hungry but we are home and he is doing what he does when we are home. I keep telling him we can just stay plain, plain, nothing fancy while he waits for his appetite to return. Also his taste buds. He says everything has a terrible aftertaste these days. There is much to look forward to in the weeks to come.

We don't have to go back to Baltimore until Monday morning. We may just stay there through his Tuesday appointment when he gets this central line removed. But you never know.

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