Friday, 9th May

It's been a long day.  I checked the date now to type into the title and realised that I have completely lost track.  I feel like I am in a bit of a time warp.  I can't believe that it is Friday already but it also feels like time has stood still.

The poor kids have really taken a back seat.  Emma was in tears to me on the phone after school today on the way to RAGA and Loren had a Geography test, which she studied so hard for, and when she sat down to write she went completely blank and said she was so tired she could hardly keep her eyes open.  She told her teacher that she could not write the test.  And tomorrow Loren is playing her first hockey match for the 1st Team and I won't be there.

I got to the hospital at 11am and Jimmy is still looking good which makes me very happy.  The physio department came up to fit a back brace on Jimmy and show us how it works.  He had to get out of bed for this which took 20 minutes and he was very wobbly and his muscles are still going into spasm.  He says that the back brace felt very comfortable and gives him nice support, but not the most comfortable thing once he was back in bed.  He has to wear it all the time, even to bed at night.

Since he was up we decided that he might as well have a shower.  With so many pipes and tubes and wobbly legs and a sore back this took 50 minutes.  It then took 2 nurses and myself 30 minutes to get him back into bed. I have to say that the thought did cross my mind how I am going to cope at home.

Dr Mccreesh came to see Jimmy and also commented that he was looking so much better than yesterday morning.  She confirmed that the authorisation had come through from the medical aid and that they were going to start chemotherapy today.  Wow!  We've been waiting so long for this and suddenly I am feeling that we aren't even over pneumonia yet and I am definitely not ready for chemo.  Jimmy's haemoglobin is low (red blood cells) so they did a blood transfusion and they also removed the pipes from his nose which were giving him oxygen.  These were replaced with an oxygen mask that he has to wear for a bit every hour as he isn't using the bottom half of his lungs.  This oxygen goes into his lungs and helps circulate right into the unused section so that no bacteria is left there.  It also helps prevent his lungs from collapsing.  While all this was going on they administered the chemo intravenously and he also has a pill afterwards.  It was allot happening very fast and a bit overwhelming as we had thought chemo would start on Monday, so I went outside into the passage to get some air and just try and relax a bit as I didn't want Jimmy to see that I was having what felt like a panic attack.

The good thing about starting the chemo today was that at least he was in hospital and any side effects could easily be dealt with by the nursing staff eg they have been adding nausea medication to his drip all afternoon.  I have been feeling a bit apprehensive about the first treatment and any side effects and how to deal with them.  This is such unknown territory to us.

I stayed until his folks came to visit at 3pm and then came home to sort the kids out.  We had made arrangements that Jimmy's folks and myself and all the kids would go through in two separate cars for the 7pm visit.  Having so many children does pose a problem in high care because you are only allowed two visitors at a time so they did it on rotation and I waited in the passage with the ones waiting their turn.  At 8pm Jimmy's folks left with the kids and then I stayed for an hour.

And so far....no nausea or diarrhoea.  Lets hold thumbs.

Thank you Cheryl, for driving in the peak morning traffic from Paarl to catch me at home before I left for the hospital armed with frozen meals for the freezer. Michelle, thanks for helping out with Loren today at such short notice.  I would also like to say thank you to my brother Stan who, in the last week, has taken charge of all things Brush Works related. To my parents (who still work) and were due to leave for a well deserved week's break this afternoon and wanted to cancel things to come and help, please don't worry, I promise I will phone you when I need you. And as I say each day to you all, thank you for your inspirational messages, you will never know how much these mean to us.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it
Life is beauty, admire it
Life is a dream, realise it
Life is a challenge, meet it
Life is a duty, complete it
Life is a game, play it
Life is a promise, fulfil it
Life is a sorrow, overcome it
Life is a song, sing it
Life is a struggle, accept it
Life is a tragedy, confront it
Life is an adventure, dare it
Life is luck, make it
Life is life, fight for it
Mother Teresa