Breaking the Rules

Due to radiation and now chemo, Keith's blood counts continue to be very low; meaning his immune system is unable to fight off infection easily, which means he should be at home and I should be limiting his exposure to people. Especially people who manifest the big 3: cough, runny nose or fever. I've been drilled (in a friendly way). I know the rules when his blood counts are low.
But when Keith came home from radiation on Tuesday, upset (as usual) he asked for something specific: a trip to the Children's Museum. Hmmm...That is definitely not a place he should go. It's crawling with kids and their cooties. There is no way for me to tell if anyone at the museum has the forbidden symptoms and honestly, some kids probably do.
On the flip side, Keith is sad every day.  I would shave off my eyebrows if he told me it would make him smile. Normally, this is one of our favorite outings and we used to go often. I was pleasantly surprised that he was even asking to do something that reminded him of his healthier days.
So, I thought about it for all of a nano-second, decided that his mental health was just as important as his physical well-being and we were out the door.

Keith was the happiest that I've seen him in 2 months. And on top of that he did more physical therapy in 2 hours than he's done in the past 2 weeks! He all but refused to hold hands and was bending, climbing and playing like I haven't seen him do on his own in a long time. Most importantly, he was smiling. (At least until it was time to go home.)

The next day at his oncology appointment, the nurse practitioner went over his dropping blood counts and I felt really guilty. Not guilty enough to confess. Not guilty enough to ask permission for the future. Not even guilty enough to refuse him less than 24 hours later when he begged to go again. I slathered on the hand-sanitizer every 10 minutes and prevented the kids from doing a few of the more germ-infested activities. (ie: the water station) But yes, technically, I broke the rules. More than once. I'll probably do it again. Don't judge me.


To continue the rule-breaking theme for the week and also to acknowledge the half-way point of Keith's radiation treatment, we took a trip to the Aquarium.

It was a really fun trip with G&G Burnett, Uncle Clint, Aunt Julie and Cousin Caden. The drive home taught us that we should keep most outings a little closer to home but it was still fun to get out as a family.

Ally commemorated the mid-way point of Keith's radiation by going topless and by plastering herself with 67 stickers. Don't judge her (or her mother).

Overall, we are doing fine. Keith has brought new meaning to the word trooper. He still has moments of stomach upset, but for the most part we have the nausea contained. (Thanks to a second anti-nausea medication and more on-the-job nurse training.) He has also completed spine radiation and has moved on to focused brain radiation so we are hoping that helps to counter the nausea as well. Mostly, he's fatigued. We have to respect his window of alertness and make the most of it.

Radiation countdown: 3 weeks down. 3 weeks to go.