Husband's Log - February 12th-13th, 2026

As Wednesday night approached, Angela began to feel great pain in her lower back and hips, so painful it made her cry.  While making Angela cry for emotional reasons is among the easiest tasks in the world,  I have never seen her cry over physical pain, so I imagine it was very painful.  The doctor and nurses advised us it is bone pain and it's a positive sign her bone marrow is working overtime to produce as many stem cells as possible for the harvest.  Thankfully they were able to give her some pills to alleviate the pain while her bone marrow does it's job.  The pain also travelled to her knees later yesterday, making stairs her worst enemy and the elevator her best friend.

Thursday after breakfast and Ang's Filgrastim shot, one of the clinic staff members hosted an acrylic painting activity for the Group 3 patients and caregivers.  We were each given a small canvas on which to paint whatever we desired.  Angela challenged me with painting our dog, Nora.  Bearing the artistic aptitude of a toddler, I accidentally painted our dog with a concerned expression, as if she just pooped on the carpet and realized we saw her do it.

 Angela painted Kenosee Lake, but to the untrained eye it may appear to be a coniferous forest under a large sun.  She might have forgotten to paint the lake itself, but we just pretend it's behind the hill.

Friday morning we took the elevator down to the first floor for Ang's Filgrastim shot, then the restaurant for breakfast.  As we sat at our table, Angela saw one of the older caregivers from Texas we've talked with several times sitting at the table across from us and greeted him with a friendly "Hi Robert!".  She was taken aback as he had no reaction or reply to her words.  I started giggling.  Disgruntled at my laughter, Ang asked what I thought was so funny.  In a slow monotone timbre, I advised her his name is Richard, not Robert.  She looked over at Richard again and saw he was still unmoved scrolling his phone.  We came to the conclusion he must be hard of hearing in his senior years, saving Angela from minor embarrassment.  The Honduran patient, Beatrice, and her mom soon walked in for breakfast.  Once they found a table to sit at, Ang went over to say hello and see how they were doing.  During their conversation, the Honduran mom told Angela she looked prettier with a shaved head than long hair.  While I'm sure it was meant as a compliment and not a critique on Angela's hairstyle for the first 11 days in the clinic, Beatrice just smiled and shook her head as she knew exactly how her mom's compliment sounded.  Back at our breakfast table, Ang and I turned this into a game where we took turns thinking of complisults, like when you tell someone their pants are great at hiding their waistline, or when you tell new parents their baby looks just like them because you don't have the heart to tell them it's an ugly baby.  This was a fun way to kill time until our breakfast arrived.  Thanks Honduran mom!

After breakfast we went back to our apartment and did nothing noteworthy.  After lunch we went to the rooftop for some bingo, or what I refer to as the final phase of our retirement home simulation.  The coveted prize was a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  We failed to win the chocolates, but Angela won a small can of Pringles.  Seeing as I failed to earn us any food at Bingo, she is now the breadwinner of our family.  After Bingo we finally finished the 1000 piece puzzle we started a few days ago.  This was shortly followed with a second Filgrastim shot, a burrito supper, and an early bedtime as we needed to wake up early Saturday morning for the catheter placement procedure.