Labor Day Weekend
It’s been a hot minute since my last update.
Labor Day started with platelets, which was a first for me on labor day.
Despite the holiday I still needed my blood counts to be checked. As it turned out I was very depleted of platelets, which explained the excess bruises I accumulated over the weekend. Not unexpectedly, hospitals operate on a bit of a skeleton crew on holidays, but VCU pulled it off well and was able to transfuse 2 bags of platelets.
Today I’m back at VCU, except this time I need both red blood cells and platelets. Platelet transfusions are relatively quick (usually 30 minutes to an hour) but red blood cells take more like 2–3 hours, so I’ll be here for a good portion of the day.
Luckily, I scored a window bay with a beautiful view of VCU, so I’m settled in and watching Richmond go by for now.
And really, after the last few days, sitting still for a few hours might not be the worst thing.
My sister came into town Thursday. She took the train up, which was of course delayed, but she made it in time for Graham’s birthday hibachi dinner, which was the important part.
Then she immediately got to work helping me continue to organize my life and get everything ready for Graham’s birthday party on Saturday.
And while we’re discussing birthday parties, I have a public service announcement for parents everywhere: Rent a game truck. Especially if you happen to be severely immunocompromised. The kids climbed into that truck and basically disappeared for two entire hours. They were thrilled. I was thrilled. And perhaps most importantly, there were not a dozen little germ factories running through my house touching everything I own. 10/10. Would recommend.
The rest of the weekend somehow turned into a little girls’ weekend with my mom, my sister, Etta and me (and the boys joined in as well), and it felt so wonderfully normal.
We took Etta shopping early in the morning before the crowds arrived. We had dinner outside at the country club with Anna. We did face masks with Gigi. Sarah and I installed a ceiling fan. We ordered takeout from Wild Ginger, which remains one of my favorite restaurants.
And that also gives me an excuse to say something I’ve been meaning to say:
Thank you to everyone who has fed us!!!
For six weeks now, people have sent meals, DoorDash gift cards, restaurant gift cards, groceries, you name it. There have been so many nights when figuring out dinner would have been one more thing my family and I did not have the energy to deal with, and instead food just…showed up.
It is one of those things I never fully appreciated until I was on this side of it. Feeding someone really is a form of love. And you all have fed us incredibly well. Thank you!
My sister left on Labor Day. There were lots of tears. She’s my person. She always has been. There are some relationships in your life that are difficult to explain because they are so foundational that you don’t really remember a version of yourself without them. That’s my sister for me.
She has her own life and five kids of her own, and yet she got on a train and came to Richmond just to be with me. She organized. She helped with a birthday party. She loved on my kids. She made me laugh. She sat with me. She helped make a very abnormal life feel normal for a few days. I don’t think I can explain how much that meant to me.
So now she’s back home, and I’m back in my window bay at VCU.
Today it’s red blood cells and platelets. Then we keep watching the numbers very Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. We’re waiting for my counts to recover, and moving toward the next bone marrow biopsy and what comes after that.
