Thursday, 19th May

 Hello 😊

I'm sitting in my chair in Jimmy's isolation ward.

I've been doing some crocheting while I visit him and on Wednesday I finished by ball of yarn and forgot to bring the extra ball of yard with me, and left shortly afterwards.  This morning Jimmy sent me a message to say I mustn't forget the extra yarn.  What he actually means is I must stay longer 😉😍.

Generally Jimmy is doing okay.  He has been very good about getting out of bed and sitting in the lazy boy a few times during the day, as well as getting up to shower.  With his last SCT he didn't get up much and became very weak.

Tomorrow will already be a week since he was admitted.  He has really battled with going to the toilet.  Unfortunately this is a side effect of all the meds that he is on.  Dr Botha has prescribed a few things to help but doesn't want to give Jimmy anything to strong because he will start having hectic diarrhea shortly anyway.  But Jimmy is extremely uncomfortable, so yesterday Dr Both gave him something to stimulate the nerves around his anus rather than soften the stool.  And he's just been to the toilet for the first time in 6 days.  We'll celebrate anything 👏😊.

The medical staff are starting to prepare Jimmy for what's coming.  Today they ordered shakes for him to make up fr the food that he won't want to eat.  And he has also started rinsing his mouth hourly with a mouthwash in the hope that once he gets Mucositis, it won't be as bad.  This is when the lining of the gut gets inflamed and results in sores in the mouth and down into the stomach.  It usually starts within in a week of the heavy dose chemo.  I've also already got some coconut oil.  A very old sister at UCT hospital recommended this and it worked really well at easing the pain.

Jimmy just organized another lazy boy and got me to move things around so that his laptop can go on the trolley table and we're going to start watching a series together in our isolation theater 😀.

Lots of love 💗