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Jimmy had a platelet transfusion on Wednesday and went in for bloods yesterday again. We have at last seen some improvement in his platelet count. After being stuck on 17 in spite of getting platelets they have now come up to 21 but this is still not very significant when they should range between 150 and 400. So he has just gone through to high care to have another platelet transfusion, his second this week.
We are nearing the end of Autumn which brings Winter and for us this brings hockey season. Loren played her 1st Team hockey match last night at UCT and this morning Shannon played at home (Fish Hoek). We were lucky that our first game wasn't somewhere on the other side Cape Town at 8am. Hockey seems to have been the sport of choice in our family with Jimmy, Megan, Bradley, Loren and Shannon playing. Funnily enough my Mother also played hockey. Her dream was for me to play but I went to my first practise and got hit on the ankle by either a stick or a ball and that was it for me. I think I was just to scared after that. So I was pretty pleased that Megan and Loren showed such a keen interest, if for nothing else, for my Mom's sake. Jimmy was still playing up until he was diagnosed with MM. It's not a very warm experience standing on the side of the field during the Cape Town winters which are wet, cold and always windy. There is nothing nicer than having a lovely cup of hot chocolate whilst standing in wet, mostly muddy grass while the damp seems to seep up through your shoes and into your bones. But being there to support your kids and the team are special times and all their friends play too so it gets quite social with the other parents too.
On a devastatingly sad note, I spoke to Jeanette again last night. She told me that Ron had been declared brain dead and they would be switching off the machines. She went through to the hospital last night to go and say goodbye for the last time and at 11:00 this morning Ron took his last breath.
Jimmy and I are absolutely devastated about this. It is so terribly sad. Ron's stem cell transplant had been a success and he was supposed to have been discharged on the 5th already. I phoned Jeanette again when we got home from hockey earlier and she is being so brave. I keep putting myself in her shoes and can honestly say that the thought of something like this happening to Jimmy while he was having his stem cell transplant never even entered my mind. I know at one stage he was really sick and I knew things were bad. He wasn't really with it that much due to the high doses of Morphine they were giving him and he kept getting infection after infection and I did wonder if he would ever make it home alive, but this is something you think about but you know he will get better and come home.
Ron and Jeanette had become friends of ours who we met at the chemo clinic. We have only known them for about a year and don't know a lot about each other but it is a different kind of friendship. Ron and Jimmy were there for each other during chemo treatments and Jeanette and I were there for each other, supporting each other whilst looking after our husbands. Both Ron and Jeanette were there for me while Jimmy was in F4 isolation ward. During this time they had actually gone home, back to the Wilderness. Like us, they also enjoy camping. They would send me messages full of positivity saying that Jimmy is going to fine. After what Jimmy went through, Ron was extremely nervous about having his stem cell transplant and he would always say that Jimmy was his marker. If Jimmy can make it then Ron would too. He went into isolation about 2 weeks after Jimmy came home and it has been my turn to support Jeanette through Ron's stem cell transplant. She, just like me, also wandered what the use was of sitting in Ron's hospital room day in and day out while all he did was sleep. I had explained to her that I went through a stage of feeling exactly the same but Jimmy had told me, once he was home, that he felt it was safe to sleep while I was there because nothing would go wrong so I had explained this to Jeanette.
While Jimmy was in F4 they had gone on a road trip to get away before they had to come back to Cape Town for Ron's stem cell transplant. We had stayed at the SANParks Wilderness park during our camping trip in January and they also spent 2 nights there in the log cabins. We had discussed that once Ron was home and recovered that we were going to do a camping trip together. It was while they were away that Jimmy was at his worst and they sent through a photo of Ron. They had pulled over in a lay-bye to have coffee and sandwiches. The message from Ron was that they were toasting a cup of coffee to Jimmy and looking forward to doing this together soon.
In memory of our courageous friend Ron,
Honour
Respect
Remember
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