Grandmother to be

3/19-21/10  Friday – Sunday 

Teri walks vigorously – vigorously, faster than B walks, pushing her Colin Firth IV pole – singing along to the dated “I enjoy being a girl” from Flower Drum Song with her iNano.  We do Tai Chi together and B teaches Fist under elbow, Repulse Monkey and Diagonal Flying.

Rachel calls and shares the awesome news that she is pregnant and due in October.  She’s feeling fine.  She sends the first picture, an ultrasound view of as Rachel called it, the green olive.  B writes that he can see the pimento.  Teri had a premonition that she was pregnant on March 2^nd – she even wrote it on her calendar.  Teri loooves babies, caaan’t wait and is toootally thrilled to be a first time grandmom.  It is a great day.

Steve & Mary visit from Madison on Saturday and brings her rice pilaf – another craving – that we have for dinner.  The big news is that their daughter Becca just got engaged to Josh.  All this good news!

B buys Krispy Kreme donuts and another of Teri’s cravings is satisfied.

Dad continues to make progress with his rehab.

Teri invites B for a slumber party in her hospital room.  It was built around a showing of Alice in Wonderland.  The 4NT oncology ward nurses sponsor Saturday movie night with dessert – this time with a thematic ‘tea party’ to go along with the Mad Hatter.  Unfortunately, the copy cannot be obtained and the alternative The Newcomer is voted down in favor of the Kentucky – Wake Forest NCAA game. 

The sleepover proceeds as expected, one sleeps, one doesn’t.  B moves from the cot to share Teri’s bed, cuddle and hold hands – it remind them that they are bonded together in this fight.  B experiences Teri’s nighttime routine.  It begins pleasantly with Teri’s chat and goodbyes to the pm nurse.  Then, the lights from the hallway, window, computer and IV;  sounds of whirring from the computerized bed pressure;  10º temperature fluctuations as the HEPA air filters kick in q. 20 min; and  nursing vitals, bloodwork and initiated chemotherapy conspire against the sandman.  As B’s thoughts drift and consciousness dozes, he thinks about the ongoing ‘battle of the bone’ (marrow).  In that light, the timbre of Teri’s sonorous breathing is both comforting and wondrous.

B embarks on his first outing outside of the hospital.  He found that the Buckeyes are playing in Milwaukee during the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament.  March Madness is his favorite sporting season as the excitement of a true championship (compared to football), leads us from the depths of winter into the promise of spring.  He finds tickets for resale on line and goes with Ron a very recent transplant from Columbus.  They first watch Georgia Tech, beat Oklahoma State, and then Ohio State (gorilla) beat a pesky UC-Santa Barbara (David) to set up a second round match up between OSU and GT.  For those who haven’t been to a regional NCAA game, the attendees are comprised of <1/4 partisans as four teams our represented and many nonpartisans who root for the underdog e.g. UCSB.  So even with the band and the cheerleaders present, it doesn’t rock like a home game.  Unfortunately, the second alma mater that B is rooting for is Kansas and they succumb to the vast underdog Northern Iowa.  Buckeyes into the sweet 16.  Go Bucks.