Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Eggs and Arsenic

Our first day spent all alone, just the two of us, and we both felt drugged.  I guess “wasted” would describe it pretty well.  I slept eight hours last night for the first time in many months.  Jeff didn’t sleep as well as I did but it was better than sleeping in a hospital.  For all that good sleep, we still had trouble dragging ourselves out of bed.  A late breakfast in bed gave us the energy to get up. 

We settled in the living room and I read aloud from The Horseshoe Curve: Sabotage and Subversion in the Railroad City, a gift to Jeff from the men’s group at church.  After only four pages, I noticed Jeff had fallen asleep on the sofa.  I put down The Horseshoe Curve and read my own book for awhile, until I realized I was falling asleep, too.  So back to bed for me.  When I woke up, I felt drugged, so much so that I briefly considered the possibility that our heater was giving us carbon monoxide poisoning.  It wasn’t. 

Later, Jeff spoke with his sister, Debbie, on the phone.  He told her he was amazed that he had slept for four hours in the middle of the day, so soon after breakfast.  He said he wondered if I was drugging him.  She asked what I made him for breakfast.  He said, “Eggs and arsenic.” 

My niece, Amy, had commented a few months ago that Jeff and I were behaving like 15-year-olds since his diagnosis: touching each other excessively, looking each other in the eyes, etc.  It has become our custom to say things 15-year-olds might say like, “You’re the best,” with the response, “No, you’re the best.”  And, “I love you,” “I love you more.”  And now, “You drugged me!”  And “You drugged me more!”

Interestingly, this was the first day since his return home that Jeff did not require the medication for pain which puts him to sleep.

Typhlitis Belly Report:  down to 42” from 44”, normally 38”

1 comment:

Clarke said...

J&A, Sleep when you want, say what you want, do what you want, but, do as the doctors tell you. From your reports, sounds like Jeff's a great patient and you're a great wife. This is the ultimate endurace test...for everyone. Your love with endure and your faith will give you strength. You're both on our minds and in our hearts.