Counting the days

Before this started, I was already in a bad way with time.

Time was ever a tricksy sun-and-moon arrangement that bewildered me. In my head I try to hold on to it: a single moment, a hand clasp, a kiss, an arrangement of flowers, and I look up to find the day has passed and the month is ripped from the calender.

I have often thought myself lucky for my inabilities with clocks. It creates a detachment, for here are moments of timelessness when I can wonder, and dream. I have been fortunate. To live outside of set hours is to be open to spontaneity, to distractions, diversions, and wanderings.

But now, now, I live to a different rhythm. I live in Cancer Time. I have lost the reminders of Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. That patacake rhythm that clapped me through the weeks and placed some structure round my wanderings. Now I live with numbers to mark the days. 1. 2. 3. They tell me what to do.

I count them out. Write them in pen to my diary. 1drip. 2pump. 3flush. 4. 5. 6. *Beware 7-12.* 13. 14blood.

The numbers are important, because they dictate my actions, outline my freedoms, define my behaviours.

This is how I know them.

1. I drive Dig to the hospital and leave him in the Oncology Ward where he is hooked into a plastic tube delivering a Chemotherapy drug. The drug enters his arm through a line which people refer to as a picc line. He is marked; pin-pricked. As if a map of his anatomy is pin-pointed to the exact location where this drug must enter. A fine line tracks into his body, from the outside to the inside; plastic to flesh; colourless liquid to living, breathing human. He stays there all day.

2. He is at home with a small bottle and tube through the day. He sleeps two nights with a small bottle by the bed. This is easier than I expected. At first, I thought I couldn't hold him through the night, but we have found we can place the small plastic bottle to one side to hold one another.

3. I drive Dig back to the hospital for the bottle and tube to be removed, and his arm cleaned. This is a process which the nurses call flushed. It is a word like a reward. We won. Dig is demob happy, but will be tired, and sensitive to cold, so Day 3 means that I turn the heating up and keep the rooms at coddling temperature. I overheat. I sometimes try and fool him, and slide the thermostat dial down a notch or two, but his body shivers, and back up to 20 that number will go.

4 to 6. We have learned this. Go out. Go to the cinema. Go to the shops. Walk, if that's possible, along the road and back again. Work. Answer emails. Write a little. Read a book. Be distracted by ordinary things. These are the pleasure days.

7 to 12. The chemotherapy drug works by killing what it can, including the body's ability to fight infection and keep the body safe. A sign that infection is taking hold is a rising body temperature. If Dig's temperature reaches 38, I leave a note for the children and pick up the bags I've packed. We spend the night in the Emergency unit. After 4 hours, Dig is given a place to lie down. Blood tests are taken and fluids are given. I doze on 2 chairs pushed together. By 5am we know whether Dig is coming home, or staying in the hospital for 3, maybe 4 or 5 days. The first week, he came home with tablets, 3 times a day. Week 2, he stayed in isolation 3 days until his body's ability to fight infection recovered. The magic number, when he can come home, is 1.

13. We can breathe, assess progress, count blessings, look at the diary, count numbers.

14. Blood test. Before each chemotherapy cycle, Dig has a blood test to make sure his body can take the poison we hope renews life. The cycle starts again with 1.