Visiting Hours!

Well, it’s finally happened – Franciscan Health has opened up for visitors. It’s pretty restrictive, only one designated person may visit, and only for 1 hour in the morning (10-2) and one hour in the evening (4-8). So, Billy and I will get to see each other without binoculars for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks.

Billy’s sister, Lisa, came to stay with me the first week he was in the hospital. 3 times that week, we drove up to Franciscan and sat under a tree where Billy could see us from his window. His window ledge is big enough for him to sit on it, and we would talk on speaker phone for a couple of hours. Billy could see us, but we couldn’t really see him because of the relective glass on the windows. So he’d have to walk down to the end of the hallway so we could get a look at him through regular window glass. This continued on last week, too. Cindy went up with me on Wednesday, and Jason on Friday. I was glad for the company on the long drive.

I guess I should have opened with ‘ Billy went into the hospital on May 28, 2020, exactly ONE year to THE DAY he was diagnosed with MDS’. He had 5 days of chemo, 1 day of full body radiation, and then, on Wednesday June 3, 2020, he had the bone marrow transplant. Then on Sat & Sun, 6/6 & 6/7, he had another round of chemo He was handling it all pretty well, but of course the chemo is going to get you, and he’s had nausea, some vomiting, diarrhea, joint aches, exhaustion, and all those symptoms. His attitude has been great, and I’ve been saying “He’s doing it like a Boss.”. We got good news this morning when the doctor said he wouldn’t be surprised if Billy was out of the hospital by July 4th!!! That’s been our hope ❤️

Jason’s family was sweet enough to come to my house on the 8th, last Monday, so I could celebrate his birthday with them. Janice made an apple crumb pie! Oh so good. I watched the kids while they went out to eat. It was fun.

Joe and family came to my house Friday, and by the time I got home from Indy Joe had done a lot of the mowing, and the girls, Trisha & Nora, had picked up fallen branches and twigs and Joe had a bonfire going. The 3 of us went to Mansfield on Saturday, after Joe finished mowing. There were a few vendors there, and some locals were swimming in the Big Racoon River that goes through town. It’s not really big, or it wasn’t that day, anyway, but there’s a cool dam and Nora had fun wading. We had a delicious lunch/dinner at the local bar & grill, but had to sit outside because of Nora and Bailey. There were a lot of people there on motorcycles.

Billy has been having a rough time. His numbers bottomed out, and he started holding fluid again. I’ve been praying that the fluid won’t get bad. They can’t put tubes in until his counts are up. He’s been getting either red blood or platelets nearly every day. They expect his counts to go up by Wed or Fri, and I pray they do. God, heal him, I pray.