Michael

Strangest thing heard/said in the Morguess home today: "Kids, stay away from Daddy, he's radioactive today."

Michael had a CT/PET scan this morning, which involved his being injected with radioactive glucose, which rendered him radioactive for the day. He was advised to keep his distance from babies, children and pregnant women for about 24 hours. This was not exactly easy since Michael was home for the rest of the day dealing with our flooding issue, and given the sheer number of kids we have. We actually decided it would be better for him to leave the house for a couple of hours this evening so as not to be here during dinner and bedtime because there's no way the kids would have kept their distance from him then.

So here's the latest, in a nutshell: he has an appointment tomorrow (Friday) for a radiation consult. I assume he will be counseled during this appointment on exactly what will be involved for his daily radiation treatments, which are expected to start next week. After the consult, he meets with the "research team." I'm not clear exactly what that's about. Radiation may start as early as Monday. Next Wednesday he has to be temporarily admitted to the hospital to have his PICC Line installed. The following day, Thursday, he will go to the oncologist to get the PICC line hooked up to the pump which he will carry around in a fanny pack (oh, the jokes that will come from that; we've always made fun of those fanny packs . . .) and which will administer his chemotherapy.

This whole thing is just a damn roller coaster. It's constant up and down. Today, despite the shit downstairs, has been an up day. This whole cancer thing is almost beginning to seem normal. Almost. You know, in a really effed up normal sort of way. But tomorrow could be a whole different story.

We're hanging in there.