Hospital Life

Sam just got home from his 15th round of chemo.  His doctors decided to do one more round to keep the cancer at bay while they work on prepping the next donor for transplant.  Since the risk of developing leukemia was far too high with another round of Augmented ICE, they decided to go instead with one big dose of cytarabine (Ara-C).  Aside from being assigned the worst room in the hospital, everything went well and we're so very happy to be back in our apartment.

Waiting 5 hours to be admitted

Getting hooked up to chemo

I try to negotiate our stays to include a Thursday night since that means blackjack in the Rec Room.  Competition can be fierce, but only patients can win prizes.  I have to remind myself that these people have life threatening diseases when they hit on 17 and split their 10's.  Here's a picture of this week's champ!  

Walking the halls.  All patients (if they're able) are encouraged to get out of bed and walk around.

The Patient and Visitor Pantry.  Free water, coffee and juice.  There's one on every floor.

And, just a side note about Jack's birthday pictures from my last post.  They were adorable pictures, but, I have to admit, wildly misleading.  I baked him a little white buttermilk cake with vanilla bean frosting.  Anyone who knows me knows that my whole heart, soul and being was baked into that cake. So, you can imagine my distress when the little stinker didn't even take a bite!  I know, he sure hammed it up for the camera, but aside from a slight lick of frosting, he didn't even try it.  He ended up eating a diced up sweet potato and a hard boiled egg for dinner.  On his 1st birthday!  And yes, I'm still heartsick.