Ill behaviour

Coming home from work contains the seeds of its own mini drama.

Got home to find the boy and the wife sitting on the stairs, waiting for me. How sweet. How pater familias. How wrong. It was convenient, as the wife was taking his temperature and needed him still for three minutes

His temperature was ok. But the boy signed that he had been sick, upstairs and downstairs. The wife said one was before he was dressed in the morning (upstairs) and one when he had some milk in the afternoon (downstairs). No idea why. He's not on chemo at present, hence taking his temperature.

Grab a Lemsip and take over childcare. Evenings are usually like that. If the wife hasn't had support during the day, my return is cue for her to flee from the boy to do all those things that she can't do during the day. But makes coming some something to be braced for.

Nevertheless, the boy is in a good mood. We build his Thomas train track and he gets two trains to chase each other. We wave as they go round the track. Meanwhile I get a bit more milk and his evening medicines down him. The gastro means he hardly pays attention as I do so.

After a few minutes waving at Thomas he looks serious. I ask if he feels sick and get a bowl. He says no and indignantly waves the bowl away. I turn to get some suction for the trachy and he vomits the milk all over his trousers, the floor and the train track. He is very upset and waving his hands frantically. I have one of those moments where you don't know what to do first. Grab a tissue to mop him a bit before he waves vomit into his eye or something. He vomits a bit more over my hand. I try to frantically wipe my hand, him, the floor and get the suction ready. Don't quite manage any successfully which makes him want to back away from the mess, which smears more of the vomit over a wider area of the floor.

Eventually, he and I calm down and I clean him up and change his clothes. Within a minute or so of being clean and redressed, he is playing with Thomas as if nothing had happened.

Still no idea why. Always the fear that it is the start of an infection which could get on his chest and put him in hospital. Or the fear that it is the result of the tumour growing - vomiting is a classic sign. A little bit more of my reserves crumble.