Day -5 Chemo: Treosulfan/Fludarabine & Moving Day!

This morning the chemo started to take its toll on Ryan’s appetite. He really wanted pancakes and bacon for breakfast, but when he tried to eat, everything tasted bad. He only ate 2 bites of pancake, which is highly unusual for him. Normally, if he could have pancakes for every meal, he would.

The highlight of the day for me was being able to change rooms. For months, everyone has been telling me how great the new SCCA wing is at Seattle Children’s and what a great view there is from the rooms. The 7th Floor is for younger kids and the 8th floor is for teens and young adults. However, Thursday when we arrived they put us in a room on the teen/young adult floor where our only view was the rooftops of the adjacent buildings and their HVAC units. I couldn't imagine looking out at that for 4-6 weeks and I noticed some rooms had opened up on the “view” side. I pleaded my case to the charge nurse and, since we were on the wrong floor to begin with, she was able to justify moving us downstairs to a room with a view that had just opened up. Now, we have a nice calming view of Lake Washington and Mt. Rainier (The attached picture that I snapped with my phone doesn't do the view justice.)

Ryan’s day was made by a visit from Grandma Terry. My mom being here allowed me to run home briefly (about an hour or so away), do some laundry, and grab some things that I forgot. Ryan’s one request was that I bring back the comforter from his bed at home. When I delivered it back to him he said “Ahhhh – now I feel at home!”

P.S. The day started out on a humorous note for me. Parents are allowed to shower in room here. However, today I forgot to take towels into the bathroom with me and I realized that after I was already in the shower. Unfortunately, the bathroom faces toward the entrance of the room, which consists of giant sliding glass doors. I peeked out hoping that the curtain was closed across them, but no such luck. I thought about dashing out soaking wet and naked to grab the towels, but I knew that as soon as I tried that someone was sure to walk by. So, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to dry off with paper towels. The funny part is that the bathroom has one of those automatic paper towel dispensers so I had to waive my hand in front of it and wait for it to spit out a 5 inch length of super thin paper towel, then it would stop and I would have to wait a few seconds for it to reset, then waive my hand again to get another 5 inches to come out, and then repeat several more times… Tomorrow I don’t think I will be forgetting the towels!