Toad Wins Round Three

Johnny slept like a baby last night. A baby completely loaded on Zofran, Emend, Vicodin, Zantac, Sennokot, and Lunesta, that is. But, whatever. He slept like a baby. I felt like I did when I brought Quinn home from the hospital. I stayed awake most of the night just to make sure he was sleeping like a baby. I would hear the little noise the 5-FU pump makes approximately every 7.5 minutes. I would hear him breathe in. I would hear him breathe out. I would heard the air conditioner kick in and think, "You better not wake Johnny!" and then I would listen to see if he did wake up. Which he didn't. I don't know what my deal was. Then just as I was getting good and tired and really ready for a good night's sleep, my alarm clock went off. Why does that always happen?

Last night Johnny had a little rough patch around 10 p.m. He got a little nauseated and had a pretty bad headache. Although, once he took some additional meds, he felt better very quickly. Basically at that point he was in bed for the night anyway, so once I got him all hocked up on his drugs the rest of the night was good. The very first thing out of his mouth this morning was, "I feel pretty good . . . . . . . . . . PAUSE . . . . . . . . . . yep, I do. I feel good." He had to make sure he wasn't dreaming, I guess.

Crazy MIL came over to Toad-sit. He behaved himself very nicely for his mother, sleeping for her most of the day and even getting up to eat and take his medicine. What a good boy. All kidding aside, if Ginger wasn't able to come over and take care of him, I wouldn't be able to go to work on the days after chemo. She totally makes it possible for me to maintain some kind of a work schedule. (My boss should call her and thank her personally!) You know how it is, though. Other than your spouse, the only person that can take care of you the right way is your mom. (Actually, sometimes the spouse isn't so great at it!) Oh, that reminds me of a story. . . .

When Johnny and I were newly-weds and living in our crappy little house on M-140 (read that, "Love Shack"), I was sick with strep throat. Really, really sick with strep throat. I had a fever and just needed some TLC and chicken noodle soup. After Johnny got home from golfing (!!! Hello.) I asked him to please make me some soup. Seriously, I hadn't been able to move off of the couch to do it myself and had to wait for him to finish his golf game to do it for me. So I hear him in the kitchen slamming stuff around and cursing. After about a minute and a half, he walks into the living room where I am in the fetal position on the couch and HANDS ME THE CAN OF SOUP, THE CAN OPENER AND THE PAN TO DUMP IT IN.

"I can't figure out how to work this can opener."

Um, yeah. Can you just imagine how happy this made me? Can you guess what I did next? No, I didn't clock him upside his head with the can, the opener or the pan. I called my mom. My mom came out and fixed me some soup and made everything better. Details are fuzzy after I got the soup, but she may have given him a lesson on how to take care of me a little better after that. I'm not sure.

But, I digress. . .

Since Ginger had the whole day to spend in my house, she did her usual thing and lounged around and ate bon-bons all day.

Oh, wait, what I meant to say was that she did all my laundry, had the kids put it all away (!!), made two kinds of chicken salad -- you know for those that like grapes and walnuts and for those that don't -- served them on cute little mini-croissants, and cleaned the carpet in the family room. I know! You are probably wondering the same thing I am. Why the hell didn't she clean the carpet in the boy's bedrooms? Don't you worry your pretty little heads. She'll be back tomorrow.

What did your mother-in-law do for you today?

OK, I just re-read what I have written so far. I kinda sound like a spoiled brat. "Wah-wah. I was awake all night. Johnny didn't take good care of me. Ginger didn't clean ALL of the carpets." Please don't send me hate mail about this. I've grown accustomed to being treated a certain way, and when that is challenged I get cranky. :O)

Thanks to John and Sally Wallace for bringing us our favorite Post-Chemo meal: chicken noodle soup and mashed potatoes (REAL mashed potatoes!) Not to mention rolls and an assortment of delightful desserts. (Yaya, it is hard to eat the brownies without you. . . this makes me miss you terribly.)

All-in-all I think Johnny has definitely scored a win on his card for Round Three. I hope this is how it will continue, because I can tell he feels very confident with how things are going. His confidence makes me so much stronger. I still worry about his platelets and the rest of the lab values. That is my prayer request for this week. . . that Johnny's lab values rebound and get back into the "normal" range. Join me on this, will you?