COVID-19 and Chemotherapy
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. Navigating what we do while Alice remains immuno-compromised. What’s the right balance between trying to ensure as much normalcy for not just Alice but our whole family and taking steps to protect her? I feel like our enhanced hygiene and cleaning routine at home to help protect Alice from infections has been reinforced with the need to also protect against COVID-19. It’s nice to know that others out there are also doing their part cleaning for Alice now, too! All kidding aside, for the past few days, I’ve gone between trying to avoid and eliminate all risks that Alice might face, to taking a more balanced, reasonable approach to try and reduce risk as much as we can. It’s a big shift mentally for me. It’s helped me shift from that “fight or flight” mindset that depletes my mental energy and creates so much stress for me.
Today, Saturday, has been a much better day. Alice had a friend from school come over for a few hours, and Alice was excited all morning for her to come. Even after she left, her energy and excitement were off the charts. We were laying in bed and she couldn’t stop giggling and silly. All afternoon and evening - what a nice treat and escape from the realities of the world that sometimes feel too strong to bear. I went out for a walk with Louie and Lily this afternoon, and we bumped into another family from school whose kid also was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. How serendipitous, really. I hadn’t had a chance to be introduced to the whole family yet, so that was a really nice treat. Once home, we watched some movies, ate dinner in front of the TV which is my favorite. Once thing I made a point not to do today was spend too much time looking at the news or social media. Yesterday I let myself look at it unrestrained, and my mood was terribly negative and pessimistic, and filled me with worry and fear. Today, I can’t even begin to tell you the difference. I’m trying to spend more time doing things that make me feel good.
We’re back to the hospital on Monday for Alice’s third lumbar puncture for this phase of treatment. SickKids called to say they’ve changed their caregiver policy for outpatient visits - to help reduce the number of people passing through the hospital, they’re now only allowing one parent to accompany a child to outpatient visits. Despite it being a procedure, I’ll be the one to go. I appreciate the change - anything we can do to help minimize the risk for the higher risk portions of the population the better.