Though it often slips out of my mouth, Tom's hotel room, it certainly is far from that. After four nights of sleeping on this "couch" I can say I have the headache and backache to show for it. Tom has an actual "bed" but he too has a rather intense backache. What makes this couch even more unpleasant, is the lack of cushion in it which results in a numb buttocks when sitting on it.
If lounging apparatuses aren't enough to make it somewhat miserable, one feels like they are going through menopause sitting in here. It seriously goes from 85*F one moment down to 60*F the next.
While there is somewhat of a base "room service", the fun-sized soft drinks that the nurses supply us with are definitely more of a highlight than the fine-dining cuisine they serve Tom as meals.
It's no wonder that as soon as he's feeling better, Tom begins to press the nurses for any sort intel as to when he will be released (now we're talking from hotel to prison analogies). At this point in his treatment, everyone knows my husband very well as he's what they refer to as a "walker and talker". This simply refers to his mobility and sense of wit about him, whereas many of the patients on the ward are rather bedwritten and not so functional. Anyway, now that many of the nurses have made the mistake of guesstimating for Tom as to when he may go home, no one will answer the question for him now... as they all know he will hold them to it.
There are "recreational activities" provided, in the form of support groups. I actually attended the Friends and Family group last night. The group was entertaining, definitely interesting to see how differently people have been affected by cancer. For example, one lady was in there because her brother in law has been diagnosed with a recurrent prostate cancer and given 9 months to live... his wife (her sister) has asked that she be there when they tell their three children (ages 12 and twins at 10), so this woman came to the group to find out how one should break this kind of news to children. That was a bit of a downer. Another woman has been caretaking for her husband for seven years of four different cancers! Mindblowing. And of course there was the girl I've mentioned before, who's mother is in her 80's and has the same type of leukemia as Tom, but the treatement being so rough... has been told she is too old for treatment and has drawn up a Do Not Resuscitate order.
While the group was interesting and a good moment of connection for me, it was the hour and a half afterward that I 100% just had intent to quickly ask the social worker to stop by and check in on my husband in the morning and instead ended up going into (as mentioned) an hour and a half of me telling her all of the things that have been going on and have us so incredibly overwhelmed, to say the least.
In other news, Tom's mom arrives from England today, which is also contributing to his dying itch to get the heck out of here. We have the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk on Saturday and I know he definitely wants to be out and able to partake in that.
For now, I sit on the stone thats numbed my bum and ponder what to do about lunch. The house is beyond clean and ready for our guests, I have a book I could possibly read if it came down to it, and our self-made mini bar has run dry of goods... I suppose some grocery shopping is in order.
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