I'm living with a bunch of insomniacs!!!

I have to thank my husband and parents for helping out so much while I was busy bonding with the bathroom. Isolating myself at my parents was like a hotel stay with room service and everything. I wish I'd felt well enough to fully enjoy it. My dad made sure to double check that I hadn't separated from my husband with plans to move in. I think the effort has paid off as nobody else has gotten sick.

Being among the living again has reminded me how it was that I got so sick in the first place - a whole lot of stress and sleep deprivation. Will gets me up, but Amanda and Erin keep me up. Erin has never slept well and I'm used to her night tantrums. But Amanda has developed horrible insomnia ever since her last steroid treatment several weeks ago. She is scared of being alone. Granted, I feel for her and all she's been through, but we can't take much more of it. So Amanda and I spent over an hour talking with the oncology psychologist last week. The diagnosis is that she's "socially starved." She's not socializing enough and he wants her back in school asap, but her counts are still too low. So, it's a lot of tough love for now. She was up for over three hours the other night trying all her tricks to get somebody to stay in the room with her. As the psychologist put is, "kids are like slot machines. As soon as they know when it will pay out, they keep pulling the handle to get there." Although she is driving me batty with her attempts, she is at least feeling really good right now. The second half of her intense treatment was surprisingly manageable. She was really ornery and lethargic last week. She ended up needing a double blood transfusion. I mentally thanked whoever donated her blood. I wish they could see her bounce back to life. She's done really well since then, but her immune system continues to be dangerously low. She is officially done with her six months of intensive treatment and is now in "count recovery" mode. We'll go back the first part of November to begin her two year maintenance phase. We are hoping to have her transition back to school after that. The bad flu season is painful timing. But taking our chances will likely be the trade-off for a good night's sleep for everybody.



At least somebody's sleeping around here.