Round 2, day 4

Sorry for no post yesterday. Day 3 tends to be a bit of a tricky one - and I also had a couple of work commitments which kept me busy. I planned to blog in the evening, but around 6pm we were told we had to move rooms. Because Joshua is no longer infectious, we have had to move into a shared room on the 'high dependency' part of the ward - not because Joshua is high dependency, but because that is where the spare bed was.

I found the process of moving to a shared room surprisingly depressing - which just shows how spoiled we have been so far. I think it is the fact that when you have your own room, you can be loud when you want to be loud and quiet when you want to be quiet. In a shared room you have to think about other people. Which is not necessarily a bad thing - but Josh tends to be a late-bedder and his 'roomie' turned his lights out at 8.50. The other downside to a shared room is that parents are not allowed to use the en suites. So we have to go out the airlock* to the toilet in the parents' lounge, do what needs to be done and then come back again.

[* As it is the high dependency part of the ward where all the BMT patients are (Bone Marrow Transplant - nothing to do with sandwiches...) the infection security is a lot higher. So to get in and out you have to press a green button to open the electronic doors into the airlock; wait for it to close; wash your hands using the facilities in the middle; and then wait for the allotted four seconds before pressing next green button that opens the other door into (or out of) the ward. A bit of a hassle at any point, let alone the middle of the night. The end result was that I didn't sleep particularly well last night as I spent the first few hours lying awake trying to persuade myself I didn't need the toilet...This is why I don't like camping...]

Anyway, one upside of sharing a room is that we have seen how well off we are. Joshua's roomie has been on this journey a lot longer, and has had progressive amputations on his leg and now has it completely removed. He is also undergoing chemo at the same time. It makes Joshua's situation seem a lot less of a deal.

Speaking of Joshua, after a slightly tough day yesterday (day 3 seems to be when the steroids make Joshua antsy and give him a low appetite) today we seem to be back on track. Joshua even did some school work! The even better news is that because today is his last IV chemo for this round, he should be able to come home tomorrow and go back in on Friday as an outpatient for his LP. Hopefully we should then have three clear days at home, before the kids and I head up to Cairns for a week to spend time with my extended family who are over for a couple of weeks. We are hoping that this will be a nice time for the kids to meet up with their friends and reconnect with Cairns a bit. Of course, the risk is that it will be really hard to come back. Hopefully Libby and Joshua will be a draw! Please could you also pray for Libby who will be left holding the baby (not quite literally) for the week during which there is a reasonably high risk of infection. So, please also pray it would be an infection-free week.

A couple of pictures:

Many thanks to our friends the Giles who surprised us with these balloons for Joshua. We hope they are still inflated by the time he comes home! 

Ruben likes to dress up as a cowboy - unfortunately Bethany is the only one that has cowboy-like clothes...