Note: I’m writing this from April 2020 – I did not post much of anything at all on my site during 2019 as Larry’s illness, my mom’s issues, and just general malaise kept my website motivation low.
After Larry’s surgery in the beginning of September, and the time he spent in the hospital at Memorial Sloan Kettering for immediate recovery, I ended up having to go home. I left a day before he was finally released. It was shitty timing as I thought I had given myself enough time before flying back to ensure I’d be there when he went back to Fran’s, but his recovery just required more time. I hated to leave, but I knew he’d be surrounded by family and would be totally fine. Of course me being home alone and away from home sucked, but it was going to be okay as he needed that time to recover before coming back to LA. By all accounts, while he did have his moments of grouchiness and apathy, Larry kept fighting to get stronger and recover. I flew back at the end of September for another week or so to be there with him as he kept getting stronger. It did seem at this time that he was on his way towards the next phase of the fight, as what was going to happen next was after recovering enough from the surgery, the chemo treatments would begin through the hepatic pump, in addition to some chemo through the prior method. We had so much hope, and with this aggressive approach, there was every reason to think we were going to be able to take it on directly. We never let him think otherwise. We had to have hope and continue to believe in it. It really was our only option at that point, and to know that the new chemo basically did nothing just kills me. Larry went through a lot for this surgery. We all did. I just can’t understand how he didn’t get any luck at this point. He was 44.
I have all these photos on my hard drive and I can look at them whenever, but I want him present all over this site and this last year documented. September and onwards are hard for me to go through again, but I will. We had many fun memories earlier this year too, so I will continue to go backwards on this posting schedule and remember the love and the fun. I have to.
Pictures during Recovery:
September 29 in Fort Lee
I had gotten out there on Sept 28, and we spent time just hanging out and enjoying company and food. I did continue to work while there, and one day I did go in to the PwC NY office to just get a chance to see the crew. I took the Edgewater ferry again like last time, and this day I also had some after-work drinks with the gang (Gabriela, Wayne, Gracie and Sam). It had been raining like crazy so we didn’t go far, but it was still fun.
Oct 2 in NYC
I don’t remember all the details of what we did the rest of my time there. Lots of walks in the park to help build up Larry’s endurance and strength, that’s for sure. On Sunday, Oct 6, Larry and I borrowed Fran’s car and we drove it to go see Judy at the AMC in Jersey, and then after that we went to the nearby mall (I do NOT know my Jersey geography, so I could not tell you where) where there was a Barnes & Noble and a Rosa Mexicano. It was at that Barnes & Noble that I picked up the Instant Pot cookbook before even having an Instant Pot! We then had one of our last dinners together at Rosa Mexicano. It was sorta early but it was nice. We both enjoyed Judy and it was a motivator to then listen to Rufus Wainwright’s take on “Judy at Carnegie Hall” on the car ride back to Fort Lee. I can still vividly remember sitting with him for dinner that day. We always just had such a nice easy way of being around each other. I miss him so much.
This is a pic from that day once we were home:
Looking back at my calendar, I see that I was there until October 10, flying home but Larry staying put for a little bit longer. He wouldn’t come home until Oct 19.
Here are some random pictures from the rest of October:
