No Goals, But Hurray Anyway

August 19, 2008

You'd think I would be upset that the Mystic '97 scored no goals last weekend when their opponents racked up twelve goals in four games. They looked pretty lethargic. Instead, I was grateful that Erin made it to the pitch.


I think (hope? pray? expect? need to believe?) that Erin's back pain has resolved to its usual level of discomfort, as opposed to its concern-raising levels last week. In hindsight, I think she probably had a small virus and some sore muscles from overdoing during the Cypress Ball Festival, complicated by constipation. I don't know why the constipation took me by surprise, but I didn't even think of it until I had wasted several days considering other culprits. We eventually (by Sunday or perhaps Monday) got things moving, though if the first round of irinotecan we did in late May provides any evidence, we need to look for diarrhea to follow.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday she sort of eased into feeling better (more energy, less complaining), but the progress was never convincing enough for me to accept that she was on the mend. Yesterday and today, thankfully, have been almost normal. Erin delivered meals-on-wheels with her buddy Jackson in the morning and then went to his house to play for a few hours. They met Nico, Adam, and Jesse at glow-in-the-dark putt putt. She is trying to get back in shape for soccer, so she did some aerobic work on her bike before the rains came last night--three miles cross country in 23 minutes. Today she has mainly just played with Nico and Adam. Her appetite is sluggish, but she usually eats at least one meal of decent proportion every day. The main contrast with last week is the return of her smile and a sense of humor.

We have moved the administration of the irinotecan from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with the hopes of sleeping off the toxicities and having a perkier school day. I gave her the option of waiting until later in the evening, then waking her to give it to her (like we did for the a.m. doses), but she has willingly taken it the last two nights--with a dark chocolate chaser--no gagging, no complaints. Now, if I can just stick with the routine for three more days, I can have a week off.

On a closing note, did anyone notice the Brazilian women's beach volleyball team's suits only had "Bra" written across them? Is that so they can tell which piece of the bikini to wear on top?