'Round Here

Round here she’s always on my mind
Round here hey man got lots of time
Round here were never sent to bed early
And nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late
Adam Duritz


This lyric crawled into my head last night after Sylvie finally closed her eyes around 11 or so. The reality that “around here” in PedOnc, nothing is what it was before for us. Bedtime? Are you kidding? Pick a time, any time! Rest? Don’t expect it here, even with the world’s best nurses and doctors. It’s usually not in the cards. When you hear a “beep” nurse Jessica will never make you wait. Well, usually. Lastly, “she” -Sylvie and Audra are always on my mind. However, when we are here, it is heightened far beyond as you see the struggles and fight that all the families up here are entangled in, hence I sometimes dwell. I am sure Adam Duritz had no idea of all of this. That’s the lyrical portion of today’s post!

Audra was literally falling on her face tired when she left at 8pm last night. Earlier I jokingly referred to us extras in the zombie movie of our life called “night of the living sleepless parents of cancer patients”. I felt terrible as I sometimes stall her leaving as it really pains me when the family is separated in whatever version of who’s sleeping where when Sylvie is in-patient. It makes a tired-Audra even more tired and in the future this cannot occur. I need to deal! We need to get sleep when possible to have the strength necessary to get through the final furlong of this race to a healthy Sylvie. It is amazing we have each had but one cold the whole time. Must be that organic food!

At 9pm the blitz of syringes, shots and line changes started in earnest. It was the usual protocol of this visit which focuses around TPN to get Sylvie nutrition and a course of antibiotics to treat C diff. Audra is the master of details so I am sure you fully understand these things from her last post. It took Sylvie a full two hours to calm down after all the commotion of the syringes and the shot. It forced me to miss the Met/Yankee game that involved the Met’s outfielder dropping a ball “a seventh grader” could have caught, according to the Yankee radio announcer John Sterling. I couldn’t put it on the big screen (Sylvie still awake) but my i-Phone can stream radio so I heard it. Ah, technology! I am a big Yankees fan but growing up in Flushing, Queens, I have a special place in my heart for the ’86 Mets and ALWAYS pull for today’s Mutts. Oops, I mean Mets. All jokes aside I really do!

From there the night was smooth sailing. Sylvie slept well and even let nurse Gina change her diaper at 4am without asking for me. I only know this because Gina told me at 5:30am when she was drawing blood with nary a peep out of Sylvie which is uncommon. So around here, your always up late but sometimes it can be a-okay.