Day +3

I returned home late last night to find a shrine reminiscent of when Princess Diana died.  Well not quite, but there were cards, food/drink, flowers, and an adorable stuffed German man in lederhosen!  I felt very loved and I appreciate all of you.  Who hung the German man on my door?  :)  Thank you to all!

We had another visitor today, another gracious platelet donor!  It's so nice to see someone from home visiting.  It's 100+ degrees in Duarte today with crazy traffic so I know it is an act of love and we are grateful.  Traffic is bad because President Obama is coming, Dodgers have a playoff game, and there is a soccer game between Mexico and USA.  Timing is everything!

It was good to catch up on laundry this morning, including Steven's.  We bought one of those pop up hampers for his room, like the one we all bought our kids when they went to college.  He is allowed to wear his own clothes.  He can wear a hospital gown if he wants but most of the BMT patients wear their own clothes.  I'm glad there weren't special instructions (and surprised) for doing his laundry.  Since his immune system is brand new, I wouldn't have been surprised if they made me wash in Dreft.

COH is very good at slowly giving important information and not overwhelming the patient or caregiver all at once.  That does cause me a little frustration because I like to see all the cards on the table and then come up with a plan.  It doesn't work that way for BMT, mainly because there are so many things to know and so many moving parts.

One of my favorite conversations with our COH doctor was, "Do you have pets?".  Yes.  We have a dog.  Silence.  So is this going to be a problem?  Silence.  "Is she an inside dog?".  Yes, she is a husky/golden retriever mix.  "Does she sleep in your bedroom?".  Actually she sleeps with us on our bed.  At this point I thought I was going to have to put her to sleep by the look on everyone's face.  She is a big, rugged, goof of a dog.  I started thinking of ways to "save her" and thought I would have to drive her to Texas in the middle of the night to stay with our son until we would be allowed to have her in the house again.  Good thing we aren't going to have to do that!

Because Steven's immune system is so new, our beautiful pup may not enter our bedroom.  She will be banned from that room but luckily not banned from this earth!  I will need to wipe her down when she comes inside and wipe her frequently.  Steven will need to wash his hands after touching her.  The problem is not the dog but soil and dirt.  Simple organisms we are in contact with daily become a huge problem to someone who is immunocompromised.  My housekeeping score card will be the subject of another day.