Joints

This morning Layne mentioned his joints again. They've been a little bit of an issue this time around - it's one of the things that this clinical trial is testing. I guessed his feet were bothering him because that's been a common one. I then asked about others. He mentioned his hips and one of his knees. He then stated, "I don't know if I can bike today since I can't move my leg."*. Then...being the ever supportive care giver that I am...I laughed. Out loud. What other person is going to give serious consideration to the exercise routine when they can't even move one of their limbs? Maybe it's just me. That and it struck me as funny that it was such a statement of the obvious.

Later, he casually described the 'discomfort' as this knee hurts less than this one. So...the translation would be...this knee hurts and this one is killing me and I'm feeling it constantly.

*From Layne: This sounds much worse than what I meant when I said it.  I can move fine, but raising my leg like I would when I ride a bike hurt, and I felt like I couldn't do that.

New Normal

Layne returned to work today. It sounds like it should be 'life as usual', right? Maybe it's our 'new normal'. Today we are getting ready for pictures that will being taken tomorrow. (Thanks Becky!) There's a national holiday on Wednesday. Layne has an appointment tomorrow and a couple of them on Thursday. Somewhere in there we'll hear results of the meeting that will be happening tomorrow. At one point, there was a plan to start chemo on Friday. It's not exactly how we used to spend our weeks. It used to be...Layne went to work (which he actually likes), the kids and I would 'do school' and spend time together, and then we'd connect again in the evening. There weren't appointments, more waiting and lots of paperwork. There have been other times in our lives when we've found a 'new normal'. Things such as moving or adding another child to our family...then there was the adjustment of when we were first married. It seems big topics get to have the title of 'new normal' instead of just the occasional schedule adjustment. It's a life adjustment. One of the things that's important to us, is helping the kids feel like life is still good and they are loved. We don't want them to get lost in all of this. And, as Layne has frequently stated, 'I'm not dead yet.'. (He's come up with lots of 'funny' comments lately.) We move forward with faith and excitement for the life that we do get to have together.