Beth has been a hard drinker in her day. And you’d expect this from a Soldier. She’s never been a drunk, by any means, but every once in a while, she used to have these days where she’d turn the music up loud, crack open the beers, have a few shots, and half clean house, half dance in the kitchen. When I was home, I’d dance with her. But not very well.

I had read a story on the Leukemia Society discussion boards about a guy with CMML who “never stopped having his glass of wine a day,” all through the transplant process. So I thought this would be a good way to cheer her up — have a glass of red wine with dinner each day. We’d toast “to blood” and watch TV and talk about the day’s events.

After a bad morning, when she woke up with a headache and an intestinal thing, (and she decided to stay in bed rather than to go get her blood tested), she ended up feeling pretty good. I’ve brought some old family photos down from the attic, and she thought she had some in our bedroom closet. So she gave the girls a box of photos to look through, and she started going through the closet, cleaning as she went. Evidently, she was feeling well enough at one point, she started drinking some of the wine.

By the time I got home, she’d had about three glasses of wine, on an empty stomach.

That probably wasn’t the best thing to do, and it’s so important for us to remember, the old days are gone now; this disease changes our lives in a mighty way.