I have a feeling these entries are going to get quite a bit shorter now.  We spent the better part of today thinking about schedules - who's at the hospital when, who spends the night when, who watches Justice when, who has what cell phone when, when when the heck we're supposed to buy groceries, etc.  Days like these are 100% confirmation of my decision to avoid a position in administration at all costs.

Of course the good news is that we had at least some time and energy to think about all of this.  Jacob is doing very well adjusting to his "new home in Room 21."  He's already asked to "go back to our new home in Cincinnati" (our apartment here) which is hard to hear.  We told him that Room 21 is his new home for now, that someday we'll go back to our new home in Cincinnati.  Altogether he seems to be taking it rather well.  He's on more medicines now and they're really pushing IV fluids through him so we have to change his diapers every two hours around the clock.  He's also been really itchy around his central line site (not a good thing) so they've dosed his Benedryl more frequently.  But we've learned that the effects of chemotherapy are cumulative so they  probably won't show up until after Day 0, transplant day.  Right now is the "easy" part.

I spent the night at the hospital last night and Rebecca is staying tonight.  Jacob is a good sleeper so he did pretty well sleeping right through the IV meds and the lab draws and the diaper changes and the checks for vital signs.  The nurses try really hard to be quiet so the kids won't wake up.  Unlike Jacob, I am a light sleeper, so though I banged a few good hours of sleep on the hospital floor I'm glad that there's three people in the rotation and a bed for me tonight.  One of the most important parts of the caregiving is taking care of our own health:  if we get the sniffles, we're not allowed to be on the BMT floor.

So - we're currently awaiting results from a lab in Washington regarding the correct dosage of his chemotherapy.  It should be arriving any time now so that they can adjust his evening dose.  The doctor said during rounds that Jacob was "the talk of the floor" for taking his chemo drugs so well - most of the kids fight it and sometimes the nurses don't even try to administer it orally but just drop the yellow tube down into the gut right away.  Thank God we've dodged that for the moment.  As I told Jodi, "He ain't gonna like that at all."

So - thank you for your prayers.  So far, so good.  Jacob is cheerful and has already proven his colors.