The Thanksgiving That Wasn't

I had expected to be posting daily this week while we were on our Thanksgiving mountain vacation. It started off as I had expected, but didn't end up the way we had anticipated. As the only mountain post indicated, we arrived in Sapphire Valley Monday afternoon and had a lovely first night. The plan for Tuesday was to be a do nothing day and rest up from Monday mornings sadness and the trip itself. That is exactly what we did but by late afternoon Joe started to run a low grade fever. He took the Tylenol and then ibuprofen and we waited for it to come down. But it didn't. While it didn't skyrocket up quickly, by bedtime (not to be confused with his napping on the couch most of the evening) it was at 101.8. He went on to bed and I soon followed. I woke up around 8:30am Wednesday, made my coffee and watched a movie on my iPad. Around 11:15am, Joe still wasn't up so I went in the bedroom and felt his forehead, which was on fire. I woke him, got the thermometer and took his temperature: 103.6. I got him two more Tylenol and insisted he get up. That's when he told me than earlier in the morning he had awakened, taken his temp and it was 103. He had taken Tylenol then as well. After pestering him, he called the Duke Cancer Center and spoke to our oncologist, Dr. Zafar. Dr. Zafar told him that he would try to admit him to the hospital from the cancer center. Joe told him where we were and how long it would take to get to Durham...at least 5 hours. Dr. Zafar said he would check back in later to see if the fever had come down. That was when I starting packing and by 12:15pm we were in the car and on our way back to Durham. Not exactly the fun relaxing vacation we had imagined. We stopped in Brevard for lunch and after four hours from his last dose of Tylenol, he took more. By the time Dr. Zafar called us back, around 3:30pm, Joe's fever was down to 98.8, almost normal. The doctor told us to continue to monitor the temp, but since it was down, he would prefer not to admit Joe, which was great. By 5:20pm we were at home after a quick stop at Harris-Teeter.

Since getting home, Joe has not had his fever go over 99. He has had some slight back pain (the bed in the condo was dreadful, even my back hurt from it...not to mention two days of long car rides and just sitting around) but has managed the pain with over the counter meds. We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, went to see a movie on Friday as well as tried to go see one today only to find it sold out.

As I said at the beginning, I had expected to post daily during our Thanksgiving but have been a little down in the dumps so to speak and until today haven't even checked email. Mostly disappointed, mostly sad, mostly mentally fatigued, a little borderline depressed and distant. However, grateful for getting to spend the whole week with Joe although he would probably say I've been here physically but inside myself emotionally. I know I have been withdrawn a lot this week. But it's better today. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better.