Household Items

When Tom and Lacene were being indoctrinated into the confounding technical world of Oncology Medicine at the Children's Cancer Clinic, ever so often, they would hear the staff  humming a  familiar tune when washing their hands after visiting the restroom.  "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me..."  

As it turns out part of imparting the proper method of hand washing to Children who are typically notoriously  resistant to soap and watter, is to teach them to sing  "Happy Birthday" while scrubbing their digits up to there elbows.  Why "Happy Birthday" ? Because they need to scrub at least 15-20 seconds and  singing "Happy Birthday" ( and many more...) is just about that long.   

These among many other things have been a learning experience for the family.  For instance, the use of cloth towels is not permitted in the bathroom for guests.  Why ?  Because bacteria and germs can transfer easily from one person to another. Michael's immune system is severely suppressed by chemotherapy and so even the smallest amount of the wrong bacteria could put him in the hospital. Imagine every time you need to wash your hands, you use a paper towel?   That’s a lot of paper towels!  Yup, you guessed it.  High on the list of constantly disappearing items in the Downing Family household, Paper Towels.  For now, Paper Towels, Anti-bacterial soap in pump dispensers, cleaning supplies, surgical masks and gloves are just some of the things that the family goes through very quickly.