Day 33: July 9, 2019

Today was pretty non-eventful in terms of Oliver, and THANK GOD for that. It is much preferred to keep the nausea at bay and to keep him comfortable with really no significant events, ER trips, being admitted to the hospital, etc. I mean, OBVIOUSLY. It's back to feeling like the ride is going to be manageable versus feeling completely overwhelming and never knowing what is going to hit you next. We know that there will be some amount of that, and that we are not "through the woods" so to speak, but for now, we are enjoying a low key day with no drama.


We have Oliver on a pretty consistent rotation of the drugs that seem to work for him and don't make him totally mentally nuts- or give him shakes, make him comatose, or make him feel more sick. It seems to be working well, and I don't think we've had a bowl by his side in a couple of days. His stomach, he says, is still completely wrecked and feeling pretty awful, but since the ER trip, no temperature and we are able to hold things steady.


Bennett, however, was not having the same luck with the nausea when he got up today. He was still a bit under the weather, although he had slept well and only threw up once this morning. By mid-afternoon, he was back to his crazy self so thank god for short lived bugs! Spoiler alert: at the end of day 33, around 11:30pm, Bennett shared his gift with me (complete with passing out and puke all over the bathroom- I have not puked like that since I was a kid!). Also, lack of sleep is why this blog is not super coherent today. Dad fell on the morning of day 34. Yay. We think it may be the same bug that Owen had in Missouri, but we'll see if he steers clear. Trying to keep our distance from Colleen and Oliver. While it is short, it's not super fun. Luckily, Oliver's counts are high right now, and his anti-nausea meds would probably help him as well. Fingers crossed.

Colleen took Owen on a walk around the neighborhood early in the morning, and Owen rode. He said, "to get some hard exercise" because that hill is "super hard." HA!

Later in the day, Owen and I went on a hike. It's been nice to have some time alone with the kids on these weeks where we aren't at the hospital all day. Again, a much different summer than expected but in many ways, it's better.

We scouted out a bunch of spots to show Colleen where there are places to pick blackberries once they are ripe.

At the top of the "mountain"- a playground! We've done this hike for several years, and now when we go on other hikes, my kids don't quite understand why there are not playgrounds at the top of every mountain. Ha.

Look who found us on our way down from the trail!

By the afternoon, the little guy was feeling MUCH better.

Later in the afternoon, Colleen took the kids down to the river to play and collect rocks. They had a blast.

Meanwhile, this was Oliver's spot for the day.  Again, a recovery day and non-eventful for him, which is just how we like it. He even seemed to take a turn to the "feeling even better" spot towards the end of the day.

We had some fun with him yesterday evening as some of the pot seemed to have hit him just right. He was CRACKING up. It was so funny. Below: my poppy made the hottest tea EVER. It's going to be hot for at least 5.5 hours.

Talking here about differences between great Britain and England (random). Then we started talking about something else, and Colleen said something about "is it your left knee, your right knee, or your weenie?" And Oliver completely lost it, dying of laughter. So good to hear him in a spot like this.

 

Justin took a video of him cracking up, and that smile and laugh just warmed all of our souls. Much needed after a few days of him being at a consistent 8-9.... he's starting to feel some of the recovery. Although at one point he did say: "so you're going to stab me tomorrow?" (The shots are supposed to arrive, and yes, we will poke him in his stomach). Ha.

Look what popped up on my facebook wall today! Three years ago in 2016, our family pictures were taken. I wonder if we would have stopped those people then and told them what their life would be in 3 years, what the response would be. Each one of us is changed. Each one of us has grown. But we undoubtedly would have laughed at the absurdity and prospect of our reality right now.

#oliverstrong today on our hike. Owen wanted to be sure that we took a picture of our bracelets out in nature. Nature is healing, and we expanded the fight to those big trees out there.