We'll Get Through This

Part 19

Being on medical leave turned out to be the best possible choice for Carina with where she was in her treatments. Even without working, the Italian was still sleeping a lot during the day, typically not getting up until after Maya and the twins were gone for the day. Maya would always leave something for her to eat, usually something like oatmeal or a banana or something else simple that was easy on her often-touchy stomach.

Another thing that was hard was the fact that Carina's stomach was no long letting her drink coffee unless she wanted to be miserable for hours after. This, of course, didn't help with the chronic exhaustion and sometimes made her extra grumpy.

Carina would then usually get up and try to get something done around the house even though Maya always insisted she didn't need to do that. Carina told her it was good for her to be up and moving around. The Italian would often spend part of the morning outside relaxing when the weather permitted, sometimes resting, and sometimes reading gynecological journals or the newest research papers, trying to use her time off of work to get through stuff she often didn't have time to read while she was.

Some days, however, she was too exhausted to do more than lay on the couch or in bed and just watch TV. She found herself watching a lot of Italian shows when she was feeling this bad, finding particular comfort in hearing her native tongue.

Her schedule wasn't the only one that looked a lot different since she went on medical leave though. Maya would take the twins to daycare every morning and then depending on her work schedule, she would either go into the office if she had meetings or come home and work from there so she could help Carina as much as she could. The Italian insisted she was ok at home alone, but Maya was having none of it, telling Carina that if she was sleeping, it just gave the battalion chief time to get her work done. Also, it helped Maya be able to work better not sitting in her office wondering how her wife was doing and if she was ok. Maya knew it was slightly irrational, but she didn't really care.

Maya was also taking Carina to her daily radiation appointments.

Every Monday since she had started treatment, Carina had a blood draw just to check on her blood levels which had been family stable for the first five weeks. However, this week, the beginning of week 6, Carina's white cell count had started falling a little. Dr. Cho had decided to take a second CBC on Wednesday which revealed Carina's number were still low but hadn't dropped any more.

Her blood draw on Friday had revealed her numbers were a little lower than before. She wasn't at an extremely high risk, but Dr. Cho had told her to stay at home, avoid people who were sick, and to wear a mask when she was out in public, including coming in for her treatments the following week.

"Is there anything we can do to help get her blood counts back up?" Maya asked after Dr. Cho told them the latest numbers and instructions.

"Not really," Dr. Cho said, "If they continue to decline next week, I will put her on medications to help, but I want to see how the weekend goes before we add another medication. We will do another blood draw on Monday and decide from there what to do. For the weekend, just take it easy, don't go out in big crowds, and rest."

"I barely want to leave the house to come here these days," Carina said, rubbing her eyes, "I'm just so tired and feel so gross."

"Is your stomach still acting up?" Dr. Cho asked, knowing Carina had been having issues on and off all week.

"Sometimes," Carina nodded, "It's not terrible, but I don't feel well and don't like being too far from a bathroom just in case."

"I'm sorry," Dr. Cho said, "Are you still drinking enough fluids?"