Woke Up On A Groovy Tuesday

Jimmy's room was freezing when I arrived this morning. The temperature read 66 degrees. He was still in bed with the covers pulled up to his chin. Can't blame him. Normally I am warm in the room but not today. The nurse said they were working on the vents or something like that. It remained chilly all day. After breakfast the occupational therapist, Michelle, came in to work with Jim on stretches. She showed us some chair yoga moves which I participated in too. Both of us can benefit from stretching and breathing, especially Jimmy. The stretches will help to alleviate some of the back soreness he is experiencing. One of the reasons his back is hurting is it can indicate the beginning of Engraftment.
Engraftment is when the new blood-forming cells start to grow and make healthy blood stem cells. It is very possible that today may be the first day of seeing some growth. Jimmy's white blood cells are 0.2. A very small number but larger than 0.1.

When Dr. van den Brink came in this morning he performed the usual assessment of Jim. The only difference in Jim's response to "how are you doing?" was Jim told van den Brink about the one sore he had in his mouth. Van den Brinks response was "Yes!" in a joking manner. He told Jim all this time he has had nothing to chart about when it came to Jim's condition. We all had a little laugh. Van den Brink reiterated how well Jim's progress is so far and that it looks like the cells are getting ready to grow. Jim's hemoglobin level fell below 7.0 today so they gave him a unit of blood.





Before lunch we had a very special visitor. His name is Jack and he is a bed bug detecting dog. A few years ago New York City had a bad problem with bed bugs. MSK has this little fellow working for them. He works one area or one floor a day. Jack is only 9 months old.



After Jack's visit I went back to the apartment to wash some clothes and tidy things up. Tomorrow a few girlfriends (Laura, Jane & Kay) are coming up on the bus for the day. They will spend the night and go back the next day. The VaMoose bus makes it so easy to get to New York and it leaves from Lorton, which is close to home.
Last night while I was watching TV I heard a bang as if something fell off the counter or inside the cabinet. I got up and walked around the apartment to see what it was but never found anything. I didn't think anymore about it. Well...when I was cleaning today I went to put something in the pantry closet next to the kitchen. I was shocked to find this:

A couple of weeks ago I bought some cinnamon rolls at Whole Foods to make for Jim. When I got home I discovered they were expired so I put them on the shelf to return to the store. Not having been refrigerated and the closet was warm I guess the yeast got the best of them and they exploded. It was a mess. The colorful throw pillows were in the closet because they are feather filled and I am allergic to feathers so when I moved into the apartment I banished them to the closet. The cinnamon sugar was everywhere. Luckily it only spilled on one of the pillows and I was able to clean it with cold water. I had to laugh. Can't sweat the small stuff.

On the way back to the hospital I visited the Catholic Church on the corner to have a moment. It is quiet, beautiful and tranquil inside. I lit a candle for Jim. I only had a dollar on me so it was one of the tiny candle. Next time I'll bring more money.