So what happened?

We did a bit of extra birthday for Sammy and everyone, since Joe, Grandma, Grandad and Daddy had missed Sammy's birthday. He got a scooter (like the big boys), a toy keyboard and a wizard suit.

While we were away, Amos (the immaculately turned out doctor) came to an informal agreement with Grandma and Grandad. There is a little gastro-enteritis going round the ward and he would be happy to have his arm twisted to send Joe home if his neutrophils got above 0.6, to get him away fro the infection-risk.

This evening the blood counts came back, and the neutrophils are 0.9! Ha! Yes! Get in!

So we held him to his word. The nurses rang him at home (he was on call, we didn't make THAT much of a fuss). He said OK, but come back Tuesday to give a bone marrow sample. Carol, chief nurse & ward manager, had got his meds ready before she went on holiday, thinking we might be out last week. So they were ready.

It took about 2 and a half hours to get everything sorted: instructions for meds, forms, packing, thank yous, goodbyes etc. And we were off. Joe started talking after about 15 minutes, and then didn't really stop until he was in bed with a tummy full of noodle soup (latest craze). But he didn't talk about food all the time. He chatted about Halloween. About how he'd known he'd be out before Christmas. About ghosts. About Sammy. Legoland. Uncle Mark. The road. And a bit about food. But not much.

He was completely charming and lovely, and apart from the odd squeaky voice, very much The Old Joe.

He helped cook dinner. Fed the cat. Checked the house out a bit. Had dinner.

Then went upstairs to go to bed and found it harder than he'd remembered. In fact he had to pull himself up on the banister. And then at the top his legs gave way and he just fell over. And didn't want to try getting up for a while, so we did his teeth and pyjamas there. So we had briefly forgotten that he is really ill. But now we remember. It was scary, but not totally unexpected. And he was utterly exhausted and so happy to be home. He did his mouthwash with barely a murmur and smiled himself to sleep.