Day 172
It's early this Sunday morning and we are "Soaking in Seattle" here in the attic that serves as our law office, and home away from.... No home is where you find those that matter most. By the end of the week that place will be a room in the University of Washington Hospital acros the lake.
Monday afternoon, John's chemotherapy starts with a meeting with the doctors for "chemo teaching", outlining the next few days. He starts with Dilantin to counter the seizures some suffer from the high doses of toxins John will recieve. Tuesday morning he begins receiving Busulfan in carefully monitored doses for four days to kill off his existing bone marrow, both good and bad and, we hope, any leukemia blasts hiding in his body.
On Saturday, we should check John in to the hospital, where he will stay for about three weeks. There will be more chemotherapy that day and Sunday, followed by a day of "rest" on Monday. His transplant should finally take place on Tuesday, May 24, as soon as his marrow cells arrive from wherever his donor is located.
John has been writing and preloading entries for his webcomic because he won't have the energy to keep it up to date for a while. I've been doing my best to see that he is well and well fed for the ordeal. Being emotionally prepared has to be his own job, but he does have plenty of support, which means a great deal to him and all of us.
Yesterday, John and Courtney went to the Seattle Art Museum. For dinner, they walked up the street and picked up some Asian food. There seems to be a competition "on" Queen Anne", as they refer to the area just north of the city center, to see how many coffee shops and Thai restaurants can be fit on the head of this hill. They came back and watched a five hour cartoon marathon of some kind. John knows the names and work of all the artists and writers, the way some older folk know the interweavings among the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Hollies, CSNY and other echoes we recall.
We had our first visitor yesterday, a friend from New Hampshire, out this way for other reasons. I rode my bike in the morning around Lake Union - an interesting hour and a half ride.
Sunday afternoons in Seattle are centered around outdoor markets that mushroom in the morning in streets lined with shops. If the rain clears, we may visit a few. Debbie and Courtney have taken up making a blanket for John. It may not come out looking anything like a blanket, but the project seems another way to knit together our small, odd family here in this place that, for now, is home.
Monday afternoon, John's chemotherapy starts with a meeting with the doctors for "chemo teaching", outlining the next few days. He starts with Dilantin to counter the seizures some suffer from the high doses of toxins John will recieve. Tuesday morning he begins receiving Busulfan in carefully monitored doses for four days to kill off his existing bone marrow, both good and bad and, we hope, any leukemia blasts hiding in his body.
On Saturday, we should check John in to the hospital, where he will stay for about three weeks. There will be more chemotherapy that day and Sunday, followed by a day of "rest" on Monday. His transplant should finally take place on Tuesday, May 24, as soon as his marrow cells arrive from wherever his donor is located.
John has been writing and preloading entries for his webcomic because he won't have the energy to keep it up to date for a while. I've been doing my best to see that he is well and well fed for the ordeal. Being emotionally prepared has to be his own job, but he does have plenty of support, which means a great deal to him and all of us.
Yesterday, John and Courtney went to the Seattle Art Museum. For dinner, they walked up the street and picked up some Asian food. There seems to be a competition "on" Queen Anne", as they refer to the area just north of the city center, to see how many coffee shops and Thai restaurants can be fit on the head of this hill. They came back and watched a five hour cartoon marathon of some kind. John knows the names and work of all the artists and writers, the way some older folk know the interweavings among the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Hollies, CSNY and other echoes we recall.
We had our first visitor yesterday, a friend from New Hampshire, out this way for other reasons. I rode my bike in the morning around Lake Union - an interesting hour and a half ride.
Sunday afternoons in Seattle are centered around outdoor markets that mushroom in the morning in streets lined with shops. If the rain clears, we may visit a few. Debbie and Courtney have taken up making a blanket for John. It may not come out looking anything like a blanket, but the project seems another way to knit together our small, odd family here in this place that, for now, is home.
