Some things I found when cleaning the last 3 weeks of detritus from the car the night before our last scheduled trip to the hospital for chemotherapy:
- 12 used disposable face masks.
- 4 I don’t remember if they’re used or spare reusable face masks.
- A handful of used tissues.
- A dozen medical-grade barf bags within Joanna’s reach, just in case.
- Several plastic shopping bags, just in case.
- Wrappers from food hurriedly eaten between appointments.
- A protective sheet to cover Joanna on the way home from the hospital since chemo is poisonous and can cause damage if it gets on any of us if she puked in the back seat without a bag, just in case.
- A squeezable space capsule to play with because outside life goes on and people are going to space and our imaginative kiddo celebrates these things.
- A few big wads of hair trapped under the floor mat that I missed the last few times I cleaned.
- A car seat a friend used when she visited, because life goes on and sometimes we need safe friends around to feel normal for a few hours.
- 2 unused hospital parking passes, because they graciously don’t require us to pay and the gate is broken often enough that they just wave us through.
- Food wrappers left over from a dad who stress eats and drives.
- Spare sweatshirt because even though it’s 100°, chemo wreaks havoc on the body so it doesn’t regulate temperature and Joanna’s almost always cold.
- Memories.
I love you so much