Deconstruction continued….

We spent Chanukah and Christmas quietly, lighting candles, watching our favorite movies, eating comfort foods, and opening gifts. On New Year’s Eve, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary playing games with a couple of friends.

The new year rolled in and the contractor came to the conclusion the cast iron baseboard radiators were too small for the size of the addition and would have to be replaced by larger ones.

Toward the end of January, my husband began to itch so severely he couldn’t sleep—a side effect of the immunotherapy. But a repeat scan showed a reduction in the size of tumors, so he was determined to tolerate it. By this time, he had been given the less toxic drug four times, and the more toxic one twice.

In early February, right before his next dual treatment, he fell in our living room and hit his forehead on the floor. We spent a day at the ER while they patched up his brow, gave him a CT scan, and checked him over before getting the “all clear” from their radiologist to discharge him.

We saw the nurse practitioner rather than the oncologist at the next appointment, which suited us fine, as she’s a smart, lovely, and caring lady. She ordered several weeks of PT, OT, and nurse visits for my husband, to improve his balance, strengthen him, and monitor side effects more closely, as he was clearly having more than skin issues now.

The contractor went back and forth with us about what type of radiator he wanted to pick as a replacement. He brought over one that looked as if it had been in a swamp for several years. Worse, he could barely get it up our back stairs it was so heavy. When he saw our mouths hang open, he said, “I promise it works. Trust me, we’ll sand it and paint it so that it’ll look great,” to which we replied, “Uh, NO.” At this point, because we’d gone though all of his recommendations, I made my case for the flat panel, aluminum radiators I wanted originally. The poor guy sighed, and schlepped that rusted and leaden radiator back down the stairs to his truck, and drove away. An hour later, I received a photo of a sleek flat panel radiator with the text message, “It comes in white and silver.” I showed it to my husband who gave it a thumbs up, and texted back, “White will be perfect. Thanks.”

The day after the radiators were installed, we walked into the addition and felt something new: heat…and plenty of it….

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