Poetic Throwdown! with Bobby A . . .

So Bob reads the lovely poem my mom wrote for him, about him, the other night and says, "That's not a real poem. It doesn't rhyme. . ." He just loves to give my mom grief about that . . . he told her, in an e-mail, that now it was his turn to put pen to paper and compose a poem, that he wanted the power to make people cry with his written word, too.

So, when I arrived at Bob's room tonight after work, I had a foot-long Jimmy John's sub—the Vito, ALL meat and cheese in one hand and—get this—a large chocolate malt from the Grand Ol' Creamery, in the other, both special requests from him. He sucked down most of the malt and ate all the meat and cheese out of the sub (the bread wasn't appealing; might be too rough on his mouth, as it's kind of tender from the chemo). When he'd finished eating, he reached for a little notepad on the bedside table and said, "I need your help. I've got this great poem to post on the blog, but I can't quite finish it. Need to think of one last line—here, what do you think?" He read what he'd already composed and we started brainstorming, to finish it. After several minutes, we topped off what may be the most amazing piece of literature ever written. . .

Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you, Poetic Throwdown! with Bobby A! This one goes out to Kathy . . .

West Lakeland Man

There once was a man from West Lakeland

Who had a sarcoma on his sacrum

He said with a grin

In pain once again

"If you think I've given up, you're mistaken!"

Thank you very much . . . he's here all night, ladies and gentlemen . . .

And gets to come home tomorrow!! As I said, they have him on a new pain regimen, an interesting combination of methadone and Dilauded, two synthetic opiate-based drugs. Methadone is most often used and recognized as a medication for treatment of opiate addiction (e.g. heroine) but is being used more and more, as a successful drug for chronic pain. Dilauded is also an opiate drug, and so far, these two seem to be working better than the other stuff he was taking. Time will tell.

Bob did more PT tonight, working on applying pressure to his entire right foot as he walks (the nerve pain he's experiencing travels down the back of his leg, skips his calf and returns in his foot, particularly the bottom of his foot and his heel; as such, he has been walking with a pronounced limp, favoring the ball of his foot. No doubt, he has some serious muscle weakness/tension in his leg and feet because of this). He's also working on trying to sit. That's a hard one, but hopefully, in time, with the new pain drugs and with the chemo acting on the tumor and shrinking it, he'll begin to feel some relief.

He called tonight, after I left, asking if I'd been watching the news. I hadn't. He said an announcement had been made through his wing that there was a lockdown or something, people weren't being allowed in the building due to a hazardous waste spill . . . so he might be glowing a bit when we pick him up . . .

We're also picking up our new little chest freezer tomorrow, so start dropping off that food y'all promised! (hehehe . . . I told Bob that if I played my cards right, with all the offers we've had from everyone, I won't have to cook for years!) I've wanted a freezer for ages, and though an upright would have been my preference, we really don't need one that big, for our needs. Just some overflow room, especially now that Bob's diggin' on ice cream. I'll buy it by the gallons now, if it gets him to eat something.

I've a big day tomorrow, so I should head to bed (well, I'm actually in bed right now. Just need to close the laptop and close the eyes . . .). Gotta bring Gaia to the vet, couple errands, then pick up Bob and the freezer (hope there's room in the van for the two of them . . .) Also, gotta clean the house somewhere in there. . . make Bob think I've actually done something the five days he's been gone . .

LOVE! to all! Jen