Lockdown

Ashton.

He has had one of his best days ever and it’s his last day of Round One. Along with C-diff, he is in isolation. As a five year-old, used-to-be-super-active boy, I am astounded at his acceptance of this. He has been absolutely charming all day, even after he learned I ate his last potato chip. ( I found something he likes to eat!) He’s also funny.

It’s like he grew an adult sense of humor, sarcasm and all, since yesterday.

We thought we could get away with a short walk down the hallway with masks on. We brought Beeper along, of course, as he was carrying the myriad of antibiotics and the “food” for our sneaky adventure. Man, we were five steps out the door and we were so busted.

The nurse, the real serious one, she materialized like a Warden and shamed us back to 420. I said, “Wow, Ash. We just got sent to our room.” (Loud enough for her to hear me)

Ash says: Yeah, that was a nice, “un-walk.” Then he took off his mask, threw it on the bed and said, “Guess I won’t be needing THAT.”

He asked me how long we had to stay here. I decided to just give it to him straight. I asked him if he wanted to know the name of the thing that was making his blood sick. He said yes.

I said: It’s called Leukemia. He laughed. (He LAUGHED at Leukemia!) He said, “That’s a weird name.”

He laughed a lot today. At one point he was sitting on the commode and some God-awful things were going on in that little room and he thought it was just hilarious. He was actually belly-laughing, as was I, when he announced that it sounded like mustard was being squirted out his bottom. I think he laughed for ten minutes.

A while later he asked again when we were going home. I said, “hey, remember, we have to get your tummy well and your blood better before we go home.”

Ashton: Oh! Yeah. That blood thing. I forgot. (rolls eyes)

Under the most stressful circumstances, we are getting to know each other on a new level. We are literally forced to spend super-quality time together. We are one another’s only company and we are getting pretty silly.

#Takemetoyourbunnyleader

I secretly believe he will be the only Chemo patient ever to keep his hair.