Starting Down a Long Road

It is great to be home, all of us. Jon is tied to this pole, sitting in the recliner. He gets up occasionally but is generally dismayed at how frail he is. Some have said that every day you spend in the hospital, you can expect to spend a week to recover. So he has eight weeks of recovery to look forward to, although I haven't said that to him aloud. He observes that he has never been in this bad shape, and except for the last week, I would agree.  Even when we were at Hopkins, he was walking himself all the way to the IPOP every day, and there is no way he could do that today.`

However, here are the things he has had some influence over today, other than his own care. He talked with Michael about the various steps to getting the cider press up and running. Michael knows how to do it all, this was just a refresher. He did the accounting for the markets and argued with Rebecca over the method he uses (she does it differently). When I told him the coolbot was frozen over yesterday and that there had been no follow-up after turning it off, he called Michael to talk him through what should happen next. Admittedly, this is a tiny fraction of what he usually does, but he can become increasingly helpful from his chair if we keep him informed. And tonight I hope he wants to figure out how much is in the bank since we haven't checked on that in over a week.

Medically, he had an okay day. He had a nosebleed that would not stop for a good part of the morning. This could be a sign of low platelets. Later in the day, Rebecca took him to the lab at Kaiser to get bloodwork done (partly to see if he would be ready to re-start chemo on Monday).  His platelets are at 18, yesterday at the hospital they were 25.  Kaiser called him a while later to tell him this, but they decided not to do anything today.

Nutritionally, he actually had a good day. In addition to the 1500 calories that are slowly going into his vein, he ate real food. He doesn't like to discuss it much, but this is a hopeful sign. I am guessing he has not gained one ounce in the last week, but his blood chemistry is much improved.

Temperamentally, I would say it was a fair day. Rebecca is far more patient than I. It is such good fortune that I am not the primary nurse here. I tend to bristle at Jon's tone, nothing new there. He says he is testy. That's a good word for it.

Tonight a home care nurse came and taught Rebecca how to hook up the new TPN bag, including mixing in the multivitamins. Lots of steps, lots of caution, lots to pay attention to, but it is all familiar. The nurse said she has never heard of anyone asking the family to mix in anything to the TPN and she will ask about that because that is a clear way to introduce unwanted stuff. She also warned us repeatedly that TPN stinks terribly and we don't want to leave any in the trash can. We will wonder what the horrible smell is.  Rebecca says it smells like a hamster cage, or some kind of rodent excretion. 

So, that was Day One. Jon was so very glad to be back in our bed. He says that's what beds are supposed to be like. Hospital beds are not very comfortable. Our bed is like a pillow. I am pretty sure he slept well. I did. I got up at 5:30 to go to work, came back home for that in-between time from 7:30 - 9 and slept like a rock on the couch before waking up at the last possible second to go back down to the stand and unload Dave Paulk's truck. Haven't been getting quite enough sleep lately ... but things are looking up.

I continue to be amazed and grateful that the farm continues to run smoothly, through all of this. We are not the only ones who are experiencing turbulence. Carrie has had sick children this week, Stephen has had a sick boy all week, we have had at least two workers at a time out with illnesses, and Rachel is working night and day to get her theater production ready for Monday (so there have been lots of rehearsals involving various workers). And still the market trucks were full of beautiful vegetables, the trains are running on time, and we are ready for tomorrow. It's kind of a miracle.