April 26th, 11:30am

David and I went in to the hospital last night to have dinner with Christine and Mom. Christine munched on her new favorite meal - truffle mac and cheese and truffle parmesan fries from the restaurant across the street - that Grandpa John so kindly purchased for her. A little while after that she munched on some peanut noodles made special for her by Kimmy, and then chicken vegetable soup made by me. She also has realized that while most foods taste bad because of her sloughed taste buds, sour foods still taste pretty good. As a result sour gummies are high on her list of favorites, so she munched on some sour patch watermelons as well. David, Mom, and I had salad and pizza/calzones for dinner.

While we were there her friend Rachel from work stopped by to say hello which really cheered Christine up because Rachel had had a cold and couldn't come for a while. Her day nurse also was so kind as to give her hair a partial wash! The hair dresser couldn't make it up yesterday, but once Christine had the green light from dermatology to wash her hair she was eager to have a clean head. The nurse invented this towel / pad system and squeezed soapy water into Christine's hair while combing it out. Christine said it felt way better afterwards, but it could still use a real submersion wash. The bad news of this morning is that the hair dressers of the hospital have a policy that they can't wash anyone's head that has scabs on it. Christine's doesn't have scabs per se, but she does have areas of dry skin that haven't sloughed off yet. She is planning to ask Derm today if she can just take a shower (her skin is in pretty good shape). If the answer is no, David and I are going to see if we can invent a better way for her to wash just her head.

First hair wash attempt - look how well her skin is healing!

Christine got a super soft and cute pink polka dotted blanket from a high school friend yesterday as well - it arrived at my house so I washed it and brought it in to her! She slept with it last night and was really touched by the gift. She also got cute finger nail decorations from David's mother, and David's sister is going to stop by in the next couple of days to do them with her. I think she got some other gifts and flowers throughout the day yesterday... but because I wasn't there all day I'm not entirely sure what came!

I'd like to take a minute to talk about Christine's phenomenal PCP at MGH. Her PCP is the one who saw her on Monday when this all started, and she has followed Christine's case throughout her hospital stay. She comes every single day after work to say hello to Christine, give her encouragement, hear the events of the day, and answer any questions we have. Her PCP has gone well above and beyond the care we would have expected, and we are so thankful for her care and attention. She and Christine really seemed to "click," and her PCP says Christine reminds her of her own children. Christine is always so happy after her PCP leaves and I know Christine can't thank her PCP enough for the time and care she has given. Christine thinks she's just "the best" and "phenomenal."

I'm at home right now, trying to take care of things around the house and hopefully get a little bit of research work done. I'll head in to the hospital later tonight, and will hopefully post another update once I get the run down of today's events. Oh, and here is a picture Christine has been asking me to share of her reptile experience. All of this skin peeled off her palm the other day. Gross.