Back at it

Well, I'm almost finished with my first day back at work after being off for almost two weeks. Thankfully I had the vacation time to do it and I've gotten some things around the house done. Of course this is the long weekend I come back to and I need to get a hold of the gal who works opposite me to see if we can switch days next week so I can go to chemo with RelUnrelated. It hasn't been too bad and people haven't been bombarding me with questions about him. The one person that I wouldn't expect to be nice about how things are and how he is doing was. She surprised me first thing this morning with asking me how he was doing. It was thoughtful and took me aback, because she's been pretty abusive to the staff and other residents at work lately. She's back on her meds again and realizes, at least for the time being that the medications are what helps her to be stable and enjoy life. So that was a surprise. The residents all signed a get well card for RelUnrelated that I'll give to him when I get home tonight. And then the amusement of all of them telling me how much they've been praying for him. That always makes me laugh. Prayer doesn't real. It does nothing. It really doesn't. If it did, he wouldn't have cancer. If it did, he would have never gotten sick. It's nice, but ya know, it doesn't do anything, so please don't waste your time.

There was another highlight to the day. Apparently the Alzheimer's unit has a new resident. I don't go up there often, because that floor is run by an agency and they take care of everything on that floor. Unless they need supplies. The new resident isn't human. It's a small kitten about eight weeks old named Patches. Well, everyone was saying that Patches was a female. Apparently they've never been around cats very often because Patches is definitely not a female. Patches has balls. So after he shredded my hands and beat the hell out of the string I brought him, he took a nice nap. He earned it. My hands are still sore. Kitten claws are far different than adult cat's claws. They hurt longer too. I miss having a kitten and at the same time I don't. I have three adult cats and that's just fine with me. They are hyper enough on their own.

Proof that my cats are hyper: Eris vs. Box


RelUnrelated is pretty tired most of the time. That's to be expected when going through chemo though. He's sore from getting a biopsy done on Monday. It was an iliac crest bone marrow biopsy (illustrated guide is here). Basically, the doctor makes an incision in the back and feeds a long needle through the tissue and kind of drills it into the bone. An aspirate is taken from the marrow and some of the marrow itself is bored out by the needle. They do it on both sides of the back to see if the cancer has spread into the bones. We got the results yesterday. The cancer had not gotten into the bones thankfully. We don't know the entire treatment schedule yet. They were waiting for the results of the biopsy to see. The oncologist is very good and has a sense of humor. Then again, I'd think you'd have to have one to do what she does for a living. And yet again, I just got another "we're praying for him" from one of the residents. Oh well, I guess it keeps them out of trouble.