Day 3: Second Day as an Outpatient

Dad and I both got up between 7:30 and 8:00 this morning. We started off the day with some oatmeal and coffee (tea for me). Dad can't taste sugar, among other things, because the chemotherapy temporarily destroyed his taste buds. Also things taste different, for example he says water and Gatorade taste "salty".

Dad and I made our way to the BMT unit for his daily check up around 10:00 am. The nurse took blood samples for blood work and hooked him up to an IV and pumped him full of fluids. I took some fantastic pictures of dad getting "juiced up". We had company in our room today. They were a couple who I would guess were in their 60's. The man had some kind of bone cancer and was in the process of having his stem cells harvested. He said his arm had been damaged from the cancer, just like Dad's, but he now has full use of it again. I think that made Dad happy and hopeful about regaining use of his own arm. Eventually Dr. Lydia came in to talk to us. We chatted with her about dogs for a while. She has a lab and a black German Shepard, just like Dad's dog, Stella. We discovered that both black German Shepards are deathly afraid of thunder storms! Then Dr. Lydia looked over the log we have been keeping of Dad's food intake and she informed us that Dad has improve his diet because he is not getting enough nutrition. All Dad wants to eat is bland carbs (noodles, grits, oatmeal) because his tummy and taste buds are still messed up from the chemotherapy, but she said he is going to have to branch out to other foods. The doctor suggested that Dad have a baked potato for lunch so I went down to McAllisters, which is basically in the hospital, and picked up two giant baked potatoes for Dad and I. I am happy to say that Dad ate most of his baked potato and even some bacon. At that point Dad was all done getting "juiced up" so they let us go. Dad was pleased that he doesn't have to come back until Sunday, so he gets a day off tomorrow to relax and spend with family.

When we finally left the hospital Dad was pretty pooped, so we decided to go back to our quaint little apartment so Dad could take a nap. When Dad woke up we checked his e-mail. He had 600 and something new messages! Then Todd called me and Al called Dad and we both talked on the phone for a while. After that we read Eva's Bolivia blog and worked on a 750 piece penguin puzzle that I found in the closet. They really thought of everything here! Around this time we decided to try a walk before dinner and when Dad got up he got dizzy and almost fell forward. I caught him and put him on the couch where he lied down and put his feet up. It took him a few minutes to get oriented. Needless to say we decided to skip the walk and get some dinner, so we ordered a cheese pizza from Domino's. After dinner Dad was able to stand up and walk around without getting dizzy. Dad and I were supposed to pick Joan and Sue up from the airport tonight, but we are on the second floor and the stairs down are very steep and very hard, and I didn't want to take any chances with Dad on the stairs after that episode. So, my husband's wonderful parents, Bill and Robin, agreed to collect Joan and Sue from the airport, so I could stay here with Dad and we would not have to risk a tumble down the stairs (thank you, Bill and Robin!). Dad was getting pretty tired so he decided to take a nap until everybody arrives. We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Joan, Sue, Bill and Robin!