The gift of roses!
In all the hubbub recently, I don’t know if we shared the joyous news: Jacob proposed to Lauren on August 23 and she accepted! The photo above was posted to Facebook that day by Jacob with the message: “got engaged to the love of my life and my best friend.” We are delighted because we adore Lauren almost as much as Jacob does! Plus, they are adorable together. We have such deep love and respect for them both.
With all Lauren’s medical know-how, she and Jacob met with us yesterday to help figure out the next steps. Dave is improving after his last hospitalization, and feels by far the clearest today of any day since his chemo treatment on 8/24. I got a full night’s sleep, so I’m peaceful and grounded. Lauren has generously offered to be Dave’s caregiver and recommended he to take perhaps a month’s break from work, since he has so much sick and vacation time on the books. Her kindness has given both of us more ease and security — probably one reason we both slept well last night!! These heavy, double-dose Chemo treatments have become rather scary for me, though we do realize that the next one will probably go much better without any form of marijuana (Dave cannot EVER have marijuana again, in any form. Psychosis is way too dangerous, especially because you don’t quite know when it will show up.).
NOTE: Dave has only two more of the double-dose chemo treatments to complete. Then he goes to a gentler maintenance chemo every 3 weeks, which should be easier.
It will be a flexible caregiver schedule, according to need. She will come at 8:30 am for about an hour, and get him going on chores at the time she leaves. She will return about 1 pm to supervise his prep for his 2nd enema, and verbally be nearby during the 2 pm enema to remind him of the steps when chemo brain returns. Then she’ll say “good bye” as he starts his afternoon chore. Dave enjoys being purposive and contributing, so we all like this plan a lot!
Thank you to all who have volunteered so far. We deeply appreciate the help you gave this week. We are taking the needs off the calendar for the future. Thank you if you already volunteered for the future morning duty, but you can take it off your calendar at this time.
Lauren recommended just having one caregiver at this time, because one person can be more aware of changes than a series of caregivers. Also, it’s hard to give a lot of caregivers instructions – takes a lot of time. This is a whole new area for me. Not being a natural creator of protocols myself, we are grateful to receive her many talents, common sense practicality being a particular strong suit!
