Thursday, January 9

The nurse was right: I felt fine today. I took two steroid pills in the morning and tried to drink a lot and eat normally all day. I was even able to work a full day and take our usual walk around the block with Andrew and Farrah. I'm sure there will be challenges in the days and cycles ahead but it's a relief to know my body didn't completely fall apart after the first treatment. 

Nutmeg added a little ill-timed challenge last night by refusing to come out from under Greta's bed to eat her salad--the signal for an episode of GI stasis. We tried everything to get her to come out, to no avail. She even climbed into the bin of sweatshirts Greta has under her bed. Finally, Greta was able to scoop her up so I could give her the medicines we have to help with this. I was up several times during the night because I'd had so much fluid during chemo, so I checked on Nutmeg throughout the night. At 11, I couldn't find her at all, and only when I retrieved my phone for the flashlight did I spot a bit of her fur poking out of the sweatshirt bin. I thought for sure she was dead, but when I touched her she jumped out. Next check found her still hunched under the bed. Only at 4:30 did I finally find her hopping around Greta's room, sniffing her salad. I gave her some pellets to nibble too. By this morning, she'd eaten the salad and all the pellets. Crisis averted. 

Lucia had track today and then Andrew took both girls to piano lessons. He got away tonight to a Penguins game, a well-deserved break. The girls and I had leftovers for dinner and then I helped Greta edit a short story she's writing for English. Lucia's been reading in her room. A nice quiet night.