Our big focus today has been on eating and trying to keep food down. My mom has a small appetite, which is great, but hasn't really had any food in close to 3 weeks so we need to be careful about slowly reintroducing food to her system. We've all been there though, where you want to go straight for the good stuff (in this case ice cream and pudding) the second you feel a bit better. It's fallen on me to say no to that, which has involved some creative... well I wouldn't call it lying... maybe more like breaking the trust of the mother-son bond that has developed over the last 32 years?
The doctors do think the prednisone (or "the damn steroids" as my mom calls them) is helping the GVHD, so they agreed to slowly start tapering her off today. I wasn't here for the conversation (apparently the doctor likes to come by at 7:30a in the morning), but the nurse reports that mom was a "savvy negotiator" in getting him to agree to reduce them. Damn steroids indeed! Her counts continue to look good (platelets 138, WBC 4.0, neutrophils 2.5) and we took a short walk through the halls that was much easier than yesterday.
My mom has always loved the Olympics (anyone remember the Olympics Triplecast from the Barcelona Olympics in 1992? Probably not, but my mom had it ordered up for us), and this year they are providing a welcome distraction in the evenings. I'm going to sign off so we can turn them on in a few. I'll leave you with this panorama picture I took in the "Sky Lounge" by the elevators today. My mom hasn't quite made it there yet, but I think in a day or two she'll be strong enough to get out there to sit and see the view.
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