Lovingheart

Marlon was feeling his legs from all the extra walking he did yesterday.  He didn't do as much today.   We did go watch a piano recital.  His friend, her siblings, and many others were playing.  From first year playing to those that were “ageing” out.  Haven't been to one of those in years but both P and L played piano.  Marlon started learning guitar several years ago but wasn't really interested so not worth it. Pan will stand in the water, either waiting for a stick to be thrown or just hanging out.  I liked the shadow and then noticed you can actually see his feet on the log within the shadow.  The tree has a ball stuck in it.  I have a notoriously bad throw.  Balls, frisbees, and even worse with the ball fingers.  Such bad shots can be amusing but also frustrating.

Marlon is enjoying pushing himself physically.  Walking further and appreciating the stamina even if his legs are tired and sore. I feel a sadness around it that I keep to myself.  We don't know how intense the transplant will be but it sounds like he will feel quite weak for a while.  It is so amazing and wonderful that during cancer treatment, he can feel strong and well.  But I guess I don't trust it. An odd picture.  The ripples in the flowing water with the reflection of trees from above mixed with the rocks below.

After four weeks of being connected to the backpack with blina, Marlon was disconnected today.  All the little things that he is marveling about.  He can go for a walk without carrying the extra weight around, digging into his shoulder.  No more tubing to get tangled up or stepped on or yanked.  He can just get up and walk without having to grab the bag and carry it with him.  To top it off, after the hospital, he went and hung out with a friend for several hours.  He noticed his stamina is improving even if his brain power isn't quite there.  All together it was a great day. We still don't know what is coming next other than dental work but we should find out more next week.  For now we will continue to enjoy the normalcy of every day. Had a quick paddle around in the canoe with dogs and Josephine.  Two dogs swam along side.  Mina was allowed in the canoe as she doesn't like swimming (she didn't make it into the pictures).  Afterwa...

One source of stress while we were in the hospital was Pan, the dog, and his jaunts to the commercial street out the back way.  I was getting messaged regularly and people were upset.  It is dangerous for a dog to be on the road, to be in the yard with fork lifts and on and on.  It doesn't help that he looks like he isn't well fed.  Being half whippet, he looks seriously skinny no matter how much he eats.  People feed him and he scrounges food. While we are home, I am doing what I can to ensure he doesn't wander off.  He did go off today and as soon as I got to him, he showed me he knew he was in the wrong. Marlon doesn't care, he likes Mina more than Pan.  I think they are both great dogs but of course Marlon's health and wellness does matter more than the dogs.  Hopefully they can all live their best lives. Pan is the bigger one with various collars to help him to learn not to wander. 

Glad we didn't have to drive anywhere today.  Just a few walks but a quiet day.  Nice to have hot weather back again.  Marlon isn't likely to be able to swim this summer.  He is disappointed about that. He was also commenting that a lot of the people working at hospital are female.  Most of the oncology doctors and nurses are female. A lot of the other departments too. A neat picture taken by Marlon.

On the way to the hospital this morning, Marlon was commenting that he hasn't had a female anesthesiologist.  He has been put to sleep many, many times and he was wondering if maybe there aren't any.  Today he had a female anesthesiologist.  We did ask and they said that out of the 17 pediatric ones they have (really that many?!) almost half are female.  The tooth extraction went well and he had a good sleep.  This evening he is feeling just fine.  There are more teeth that will need to come out at some point in the future but for now they will be left alone.  They are not decaying or causing any harm.  Two long dental appointments are scheduled to get a lot of work done over the next couple of weeks.  He will be awake for those. Other than that, we don't know much of what is coming.  The bone marrow transplant will happen around the middle of July. Blue Heron waiting for dinner.  A big bird that comes around regularly. 

For dessert yesterday we had ice cream and pie.  Marlon commented that when he gets ice cream, his instinct is to just swallow it.  His pills are always buried in a bit of ice cream so when he gets some his body says swallow.  He had to make a conscious effort to just eat the ice cream.  The day went about as expected.  An hour drive to Hamilton.  On the way there, I had to keep reminding myself not to be rude or unkind to the people working there.  I was stewing.  Sitting in the waiting room for 2 hours.  I was about to cause a fuss when Marlon's name was called.  The first thing the anesthesiologist (the head of them) said to us was that he was sorry we were there.  Not those exact words but we all understood we had no reason to have an in-person pre-op appointment.  He was apologetic.  Marlon rubbed it in pointing out the wasted money in gas could have bought him a sub sandwich.  Lately a lot of financial transacti...

A full day. My niece came by with her two kids and we hung out before heading over to my sister's place where she was having her mother's day dinner.  It was a last minute decision that allowed my niece to come along and see her cousins.  Thirteen people around the table for dinner with 5 dogs milling around.  An unusually social day for us.  Marlon considers himself more antisocial and was definitely ready for some down time.  At least he has more physical energy.  The smallest dog (with a huge personality) picked the biggest dog to play with.  Fun to watch them.  And of course the only living beings I got pictures of today were dogs.  Oops