Boot straps

I have a funny little observation.
It's about the two posts I shared at the same time. One was sweet, one was salty.
I can see how many times the posts have been clicked, and ya'll should know: you prefer salty.

The next post was difficult to write, I'm sure difficult to read and definitely difficult to live! I've been working on this post, for over a week now, as a sort of antidote.

So, I'm going to dream a little today. Dominic is getting hours worth of infusions, he's comfortably bundled in a bed, and peering over his shoulder, I see he's looking at football stats. (Soccer for all of us Yanks.) That's a wonderfully encouraging thing to see.

A friend of ours is in Finland right now. (Well, was...I began writing a week ago!) It reminds me that something on my bucket list is to see the Northern Lights. Dominic dreamed of taking me to Paris all through the last year, and I wouldn't say no. But my heart leans toward the celestial just now. Or toward nature. Mountains and stars. The universe is vast and beautiful and bigger than this thing we're fighting right now.

You know I have boot straps. And you know I'm not afraid to use them. Again and again. Some days are hard. Lately very hard. But I can't live there!

So I'm working on picking up where we left off. Dominic and I looked at photos the other day. We talked about who he is, and how who he is today is not who he is. This is just an aberration for now. The nurse this morning got a little teary eyed as she remarked he is still just the sweetest man, even as he endures more than most will ever in their life have to. That speaks volumes.

I remind myself that this too shall pass. Not quickly enough, but just as nothing gold can stay, nothing this grueling can stay either.

But just because I haven't lost my sense of humor, I have to laugh. When we arrived this morning, the nurse said, "I hope you don't have any plans today." She must be joking...surely she must be joking! Our plans for the next several, several days are to get Dominic strong again. This is not a vacation. (Though I'm still dreaming of room service!)

And for all you salty folk, I need people to stop being so helpful. Just stop already! Does that make me the worst person ever?
Our first trip into the infusion center without Mom's help, I was just getting the hang of wheelchair, walker, bags etc...he and I negotiate between the two, because walking is ideal.  He'd just transferred into the chair, and it I felt kind of chaotic. So this helpful guy wants to hold the elevator for us, and I'm trying to get in with bags and an open walker and the wheel chair and I know I should have just waved him on while I pulled it together. But he insisted and I stepped in and found I couldn't move or fold up the walker because he stood right on top of me verbally giving me helpful tips about backing into elevators etc...So helpful. Maybe next time, just move?

And the nurses. God bless the nurses. How do they think Dom gets to and from his appointments? Because every day, they're full of nervous energy about whether the brakes are on (the brakes they are immovably standing in front of), or if I'm lifting with my legs, or if Dom can actually stand up. (He can). What would I ever do without them? There is constantly someone so worried I can't manage that they are just.in.my.way.

And the kids in valet parking. I'm so exhausted, my gracious plate is running low! They stand at the driver door waiting for me to get in and buckle up, and meanwhile, I'm unloading bags and folding chairs and walkers and I just need a moment. I don't need someone who means well staring at me. And I really don't need someone standing right at Dom's door staring at us. I told a guy the other day who was just hovering uselessly and I had just had bad news and he was breathing down my neck, I told him I just need to be, and I don't know, I drew an aura around me or something. Lots of hand gestures were involved because I really needed a moment. He shuffled away. I felt like a crabby old lemon, but I'm so tired. I don't need someone handing me things that I'm perfectly capable of picking up when I am ready, but that I just need to set down 3 inches over because I'm not ready for that thing yet. I don't want that right now. Do you not see me actually doing what I need to do? Is it not obvious I left the trunk open because I am not done yet? Can you not see I got this? I got this. I feel like a server with a tray full of dishes and glasses and some well meaning person puts a glass on to "help out" but the server has to gracefully hold that heavy tray and not drop it even though the careful balance has been broken.

I got this. Barely. But I got it. I'm going to keep on keeping on until there's no more chairs or walkers or appointments or drugs. Just Dom and I hopping in the car to actually drive somewhere fun.
Meanwhile, don't stop helping us with your love and encouragement. We can always do with the cheer team.  And there's a lot of big things I don't have. I'm grateful for the big things. And really, I am grateful for the small things too.

And speaking of the big and small....We  are being sneaky! We went home last night! Kim is an amazing friend, and her home is so very peaceful. She and I would sit in her back yard and even in the extreme heat, it was just so comfortable. And the plants in her yard were so soothing to me. Such a great soft landing.

But, there's no place like home. I could unpack our bags, and stop hauling the beanie and leather gloves that somehow made it to the hospital in the middle of summer. I could sort through the piles of things I had for all the different living situations. I didn't need plastic storage containers or paper plates at Kim's, but I didn't want to leave piles of things in the car. Now it's all sorted and at home!

Home. Our neighbor/most amazing friend found someone who opened their garage full of items we would need, including a ramp for our entry. We hope this time on wheels is short, but it is our current reality. She wheeled around the house in our big wheel chair and did an incredible job making sure the re-entry would be smooth. It was. Dom fell almost right into bed. And I ran down to the garden and picked some ripe tomatoes!

The cats curled right up against Dom's legs and the weather was perfect. Dom said to me on the way in this morning that home feels really healing. It is. That was my plan all along.

There was a package containing many different chocolates shipped from a dear friend waiting there for me. The chocolates included words of encouragement and love, and offers of support that I know are truly meant.
My Grandma would always say I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (She was a powerhouse, that woman. She did do amazing things.) Sometimes, I think I can do all things through chocolate.
But the reality is, I am held up by so many. So much encouragement, support, prayers, visioning, love, practical gifts and service. I can do all things. I cannot do them alone.

Sometimes, I may want someone to get out of my way, but really, we are ever so grateful for all of those who have stood with us on this way.

Seems like it's time

We've been home over a month now and it still feels weird. It feels great, and it feels weird.
The white blood count has not budged, so we're still a bit isolated. I'm not looking up friends to catch up with just yet, and Dominic is still in full recovery mode.

I'm every day grateful so may people have supported us emotionally and financially, as I just had no idea how long this whole process would stretch. Dominic is chomping at the bit to work, but his body is still saying no.

He was able to facilitate hiring a day worker to come and do some of the work we normally do on the "ranch." I was happy to leave that to him.
My mom is also an incredible worker bee. She has taken hold of Dom's weed whacker and made a good dent. We had a mother daughter day, she pushing the mower and I got hold of a wand myself. The weeds seem to have been given an extra zeal for life after the fires. The field just behind our home that was burned to save our home grew I think 2 feet in one week of rain. It stands above waist high in some places. Little by little, we'll get it cut back like a new recruit.

I may have also gone a little wild. Brad and Dominic have bees behind our house. Brad started with one hive and then brought Dominic on board a couple Christmases ago. We enjoyed the first harvest of honey last fall, and I can't wait until Dominic is free to sample the goods. (Honey is still on the no no list.) Bees seem to be very sensitive to plant poisons, so what to do about the poison oak growing in our back yard? I really didn't want to spray poison so close to the hive. So, with a wild hare, I woke one morning, dressed head to toe, rubber gloves, goggles and a mask. I hand pulled yards and yards of poison oak. I had no idea that a little three inch plant would be part of a system of root that stretched at least three yards. I folded it like Christmas lights as I pulled and pulled. I filled a large trash bag with poison oak, and dropped it in the bin, thinking it would be a nasty surprise if we still lived in Sacramento.
My gift of the task was a little bit of rash on my forearms where my sleeves had pulled away and a stripe from my eye to hairline where I'm sure my hair brushed some oak and then my face. Not too bad for getting the job done.

I still haven't returned to yoga since we've been home. I miss going and being in a dedicated space with the temperature cranked up. All in good time though. Skipping classes has afforded me more time to work outside. And heaven knows, this property we care-take needs lots and lots of work. And the risks of bringing home germs are just still too great.

New realities are setting in, and sometimes they're ones we'd like to run away from. They're definitely not things people like to talk about. I think on some level, Dominic and I saw us going back to normal a little more quickly. I think a lot of people have seen the 100 days that way. We thought after 100 days, he'd be right as rain. That hasn't been the case, and it's been an adjustment. As I mentioned above, the white blood count wont' budge. Yesterday it was at just 1. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse mentioning this, and then again, I find I have to explain this in awkward situations. This is the part of the blog that just gets so personal.....it's the part where I'm not thinking about our support group as much as I'm thinking about someone else going through this in the future and how I can support them. It's not anyone's responsibility to know how dire this situation is. I cannot and do not expect people to understand what a 1 means for the white blood count. But, I find, I will have to get explicit at times. I will have to say no to things that hurt to say no to.

Here is what a 1 means:
A 1 means Dominic is incredibly fatigued. A 1 means he is so very vulnerable to germs. A 1 means he has virtually no immunity. A 1 means the simplest cold could result in death. I find I have to explain this to people who ask me should he not catch a cold because it will last longer? Oh, if only it were that simple! I'm sure Dominic would love to get back to his old life if the only repercussions were he may catch a cold that would last longer than most. With no immunity, a cold could take hold and lead to sepsis. At this juncture, this is not a mere inconvenience, it is life and death.

It's difficult to share all this and not feel like I'm complaining or scolding.  But, I am compelled to share this with the thoughts that this is bigger than me. This is bigger than my discomfort in over-sharing, or pride in holding it all together.

So, this is where we are after being home a full month. We still see the doctor once a week. He would let us come every other but for the low White Blood Count. Dominic has to get a shot every week to stimulate production. He gets poked first for blood draw and then poked again for the shot.
We had 8 am appointments the whole time until the tri-fusion came out.This meant we got there when they opened, we'd be scooped up into a private cubicle, we were almost always seated right across from the nurses station because we like to banter with the nurses and they like to remark on Dom's hair and eyebrows. We'd stay there until the doctor came by, and then we'd be off to home.
Now, we don't get there until 9 and we have to sit in the waiting room. The appointment times are not precise, so we sit and wait. We wait in the waiting room until the lab results are in. Once the results are in, we originally would just go to the doctor's office, but because of the need for shots, we go back to the nurses and get a shot. We've been so spoiled spending all our time in the comfort of our own little room surrounded by the nurses. This thing of being in the waiting room next to the humanity is new. Yesterday, the single mom wanted everyone to know that she should have special treatment because she's a single mom and it's hard. She was not there as a cancer patient. I am sure being a single mom is hard. Very hard. And we would have gladly given up our spot so she could be on her way. But I looked around the room at the people in line before her. Masks and green faces ready to be ill, people bent with age and unable to walk in a straight line. Perspective is an interesting thing, if one can afford to take the time and have some. Sometimes, we're so balled up in what is happening to us now, it's hard to re-frame.
And that is why it's so difficult for me to share my hard bits, my realities. For fear my perspective needs re-framing.

But here are the fun bits. The doctor doesn't seem phased at all by the low WBC. He breezes in, says yep, still low, still need to come once a week. Then some other topic comes up. Last week he asked Dominic if he got a hair cut! Ha ha! Dominic thought he was joking, and responded in kind and they both kind of stared at each other. Being the interpreter, I told Dominic he was in earnest, and we all chuckled awkwardly. One day, Dominic will need a hair cut. That day has not arrived. And, I am trying to coax him into a photo......not yet, he says.
Last week, I made him car sick the last leg of our journey home. He had to share this with the doctor which prompted stories of wives and driving and perhaps Dominic will be driving home from now on.

So, it's not all low WBC and woe is me. The doctor seems untroubled by this low count. All the other numbers look good. We just have to be patient. Is that why patients are called patients? We're so happy to be home. It's not back to normal, but it's also home. Our only upstairs neighbors are the occasional hyper squirrel and maybe a fox or rat....The peony is blooming! And the tomatoes are in. The cats are, well, they're cats. It's as if we never left.

We so look forward to connecting with friends. All in good time.

jiggity jig

The news is out. We are home! We are officially home. After one hundred plus days, the temporary home story is over and the transition to home sweet home begins.

I wish I had taken the time to sit and write so many thoughts...but it has been a whirlwind!

We began the transition back in February. We talked about what to do as our commitment to the house in Sacramento was coming to an end and the neighbor's ability to not tromp across the floors at 3 am was not coming to an end.

We made arrangements for friends to be with Dom while I spent a weekend getting our little cottage ready. I'd let the cats have free reign in our bedroom and after 3 months of their indoor/outdoor fur-bodies lounging on the bed, it was not pretty. Everything came off the bed and got a good wash. And, call me crazy, but I started spring cleaning from one corner of the room, all the way through the house. No, I'm not content to just vacuum, dust, and mop. I must go through every drawer and basket and cupboard and spring clean.

But I have to back up. You see, I was not the first person around here to spring clean. The tractor shed is attached to our home, and over the years, the shed became the final resting place for a lot of junk. (The homeowner's, not mine! I have plenty of junk myself, but perhaps not a garage door motor circa 1970.) Over the months we'd been gone, some special people had been weeding and cutting back bushes. And one day, a group of very special people spent love day cleaning out this space! No small feat. I parked, ready to tackle everything all at once, in the back of my mind knowing I would also tackle this space soon and.....it was already tackled! It was cleaned out! And, as I got closer to our porch, I saw pretty flowers fresh planted! My heart was swelling and racing. I felt so very loved.
It was like an Easter egg hunt, that's what I thought, as I walked around the house and found once empty flower pots and ceramics filled lovingly with flowers and succulents. And a young man had spent his day weed mowing until he ran out of string. I was so touched that the son of a friend would spend his day caring for us so tangibly. Our firewood was stacked neatly, and as I have stacked firewood myself, I know that was no small job. Everything looked so incredible. Our dear friends did what would take me weeks to do in one day. I still get a little verklempt thinking about it.

And they are dreaming of outdoor spaces with us. Dreaming of a summer spent outside in beauty, quite the opposite of this past summer. And I could not have better people in my life if I tried. I attribute it to Dom and his winning personality.

So, armed with all those good feelings, I set into the house. I covered the table in items that would be happier in other homes. I packed the last of Christmas away. I of course cuddled the kitties. And I vacillated between can this really be happening and we are coming home soon.

I spent the first day and a half doing the purge thing. There was an added layer of looking to replace things my Mom had lost in the fire and finding things I was so relieved were not lost. My heart still hurts when I think about the fire. It's crazy to me to think back to where we were that October. Dom was on round 6, the dreaded even round of chemo, and we still had not found a donor. There were possibilities, but no one clearly committed. I think we were as low as could be. And waking up to the terrible news that our city was on fire, our home was under threat, a beloved home lost already, and Dom not able to lift his head off the pillow, those were dark days. Those days, it was very difficult to imagine that someone would donate their stem cells and we'd find a place to live in Sacramento, and we'd make it through the 100 days.

And there I was. Preparing our nest that survived the fire, for my man who also survived his own fire. 100 days nearly complete and pretty little flowers to welcome us home.

And wouldn't you know, if I wasn't already emotional enough, my Aunt was doing some spring cleaning and purging of her own, and offered to send me some of my Grandma's things she'd been keeping. In figure, I am a carbon copy of her. My aunt sent me a couple pictures to see if I'd like the items or not. The black rain coat that was my Grandma's last coat I remember her wearing immediately brought tears to my eyes. There was just something about the cuffs that instead of buttons had little bows. The coat spoke to me also of the adventures my Grandma went on. She wore this coat to Switzerland and Chicago. She'd traveled Europe straight out of high school in 1938. Her steamer trunk with stickers from each country she visited sits in my house complete with much of her travel attire. She continued to travel as she could throughout her life. Somehow, that coat held so much Grandma, whom I love dearly. I'd already shared all this with my Mom, shared with her how I cried when the photo came, and cried again even as I shared this with her. I cried as I opened the box of treasures cleaning weekend, and shortly thereafter, Mom showed up. The coat fit her perfectly. It's raining even as I share this, and it makes me so happy that my Mom should have my Grandma's coat. (This Grandma is my Dad's mother.) But for my mom to have her coat just felt right in the midst of all that has happened.

And all of the above is to say, if you didn't already guess, this is an emotional time! But, I welcome the emotion. I welcome the connections and the history and the memories and the dreaming of better days and making new memories.

I scurried around for 2 nights and 3 days and with the help of Mom and friends, got it done. I feathered the nest and returned to Sacramento to scoop up Dominic. He'd had a great weekend with friends.

I packed up our little mini to the roof. (We'd arranged to pick up the rest, which also turned out to be to the roof, on our next doctor visit.) Dom stayed in the car as the first thing I packed up is his work computer. Once I could not shove a single other thing inside, we set off for home. I wondered how he'd feel heading home after 3 months of being away. We were mostly excited and relieved to be saying goodbye to the noisy house. No more elephants up stairs. No more metal kitchen with 20 pound flat ware clanging loudly every time we ate. And we were so longing for home. And, we were nervous as we weren't technically freed to go home. We just decided it was time. But, a part of us worried as we didn't want to jeopardize anything we'd worked so hard for.

Dom felt the same shock and awe I did as he walked up the path and saw all the work that had been done. He looked up at our green hills that were once brown from the fires. He scanned the tree line taking in the ones that burned down, and the ones that look like they'll make a comeback. He masked up and took a walk.

And now that we're "officially" home, the sweet relief can really settle in. Now that the doctor said it's "okay", we are sleeping like babies. He is extra fatigued right now, as the steroids he'd been on gave him energy. He's completely off steroids now, and the doctor cut out another medication yesterday. Each cut is a sign of moving forward. So, he's settling in slowly. I'd imagine it's bitter sweet to be home. Mostly sweet. But there's still limitations. We're still taking precautions as his White Blood Count is taking its sweet time rallying. It will be some time before he can integrate back in to work, and even more time before he can work in the garden or do things he'd normally do around here. But for now, he can wander around outside. He can set up his office and be inspired by tutorials and past images he's shot.

And I've already gotten my fingers in the soil. My neighbor took me on a surprise adventure and bought me a plant to put in the ground with all the fixings. She'd done some research and took me to just the spot for what was needed. We spent the next morning weeding out a spot that was once a jumble of pots, and carved out a plot for sweet peas and peonies.

Looking back, time did fly and move like molasses. I did not know what to expect, but I think things went better than expected. I bought Dominic a bell for Christmas, thinking he'd be an invalid barely able to move, and that was certainly not the case. He's been so strong, and has received so many compliments from the doctor and nurses for what a good patient he has been.

We still have many trips to Sacramento. There's still many tests and blood draws. But we're home! And the first tests returned very good results. Dom has just returned from a morning walk and our noisy black kitty is telling us what's what.