Day +31

Nora passed the baton to me last night and tried to go home. No dice!  Her 9 pm flight was delayed until 10:30 and then delayed again until 12:30 am. She decided that a night on the sofa bed in Monrovia was preferable to a 2 am arrival in Oakland so we changed her flight and she got home this am with no further difficulty.

Sile continues to get stronger and more "herself" every day. On the way to the hospital today she began telling me the proper route. I (not too gently) reminded her that I had driven that same route many, many times over the last month. She allowed as how that was true and we arrived at the City of Hope without incident.

One of the main challenges at this point is keeping track of all of Sile's meds. There are the morning pills, the mid-day pills, the evening pills, the pills not to be taken on days when certain tests are to be done, the weekend-only pills, the pills to be cut in half, the pills to be taken whenever she feels like it but no more than x times per day, and pills to be taken only when Pisces is in the western sky. Ok, I made that last one up, but all the rest are true. It's daunting. My inner techie wants to write an app to keep track of it all.  Maybe I will, maybe I will.

Sile's appetite is coming back and food is beginning to taste good again. Apparently last week some time she abandoned a banana because it tasted "weird", but this morning at breakfast bananas tasted good again. Blame the chemotherapy. Chemo really does do a number on your body. Sile has referred several times to "chemo brain". Apparently this is a well-known side effect of all the stuff they pumped into her over the last month.   She is distressed that she can't remember what someone wore to a wedding a few years ago (which she definitely would have remembered pre-chemo).  I, on the other hand, can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.  Even with the chemo I think her memory is better than mine at this point.

The routine here in Monrovia revolves around Sile's daily visits to City of Hope. Other activities include hand washing, pill taking, walking around in circles in the hotel room (her, not me), washing fruit, more hand washing, and chatting. We had a visit today from Jo Wayles, a colleague and friend of Sile's dating back to Athenian School days. She was in town with her husband Alan and it was great to see them and catch up a bit.  It was also great to Sile able to sit up and chat for an hour with an old friend and thoroughly enjoy herself. What a change from two weeks ago!  Today Sile used the term "miraculous" to describe her journey over the last few weeks. I have to agree.