Bring on the weekend

It's Friday! There was a time in my life that I desperately looked forward to the times the boys were in school, but now I look forward to the weekends that I get to have all of them home and together.

This past week, N's counts were up again and we were able to administer his chemo. However, we also gave him his flu shot in clinic... and boy did that make him feel crummy. I know sometimes the flu shot can make me feel a little icky afterwards, so I cannot imagine how it must affect the body when the immune system is compromised AND you have chemo pumping through your body. The doctors say that it's worth it for him to get it, and in fact strongly insisted that he should. The flu is THAT terrible! Both times I had it in my life were memorable to say the least. This year, I felt fine after my flu shot thankfully so hopefully you will too! I will also share that Target gives flu shots for free and they give you a $5 gift card for getting it there. Yes, I do plan on using that to bribe my other 2 into getting their shots. "Get a shot and you can spend $5 on anything you want!! Think about the possibilities.....!" That's how I plan on presenting it cheerfully with lots of enthusiasm. It was so much easier when they didn't understand what was going on.

So for about 1.5 days, N was on the couch, miserable. And we knew that the flu shot was the culprit this time. I'm happy to report, though, that N is back up and running as of yesterday. He had no fever, no other side effects aside from just feeling achy and out of whack. By bedtime yesterday, I knew he was feeling normal again when he was chatting my ear off in the dark. He shared with me a string of random thoughts, the most interesting one being his newfound tactic for outrunning his brother L. The key is to run in a zig zag pattern. He said he learned that from the hippos. Hippos can outrun a car when going straight, but they are extremely slow when what they're chasing goes in a zig zag pattern. He figured if it works for hippos, it works for L. N better not be making any correlations there that his brother is in any way like a hippo.... but I'm glad N is applying his knowledge to important endeavors like frustrating his brothers to no end! One day I'm sure they will dish it back. In due time... 😂




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day +16

It looks like his counts are now on the rise! We are waiting for his neutrophil count to reach 500 and steadily remain above that count before getting discharged. Once it stays above that count, the doctors said we can then look back at that first day he reached 500 and say that's the day his brother's cells fully grafted into his system. From that point on, I become a neurotic watchman over him until we reach day +100. After that, I am allowed to become a little ness neurotic for up to a year (because we all know how easy it is to become less neurotic about something). Based on how his numbers are patterning, the doctors have projected that we may be able to get out of these 4 white walls as early as MONDAY!! Freedom will never have tasted so sweet to my little boy. I am certain of that. Today is a special day for us because it is my middle buddy's birthday. We did celebrate as a family a full month early so that we could celebrate it together. Our middle child is funny ...
Read more

Day +6

We have arrived to 6 days post transplant, and 8 days post chemo... and still... no signs of any sores, infections or complications. His counts have now bottomed out, and he has no immune system whatsoever at this point. We are certainly not in the clear yet as we are still within that crucial window, but the fact that he is doing so well at this point in the transplant is pleasantly surprising to virtually everyone. He has even been maintaining his weight WITHOUT a feeding tube! We never could get him on board to getting that thing in, and I think with the possibility of having to insert a tube up his nose and down his throat looming in front of him, it motivated him to eat. In fact, for the past 4 days he has weighed exactly the same, down to the tenth of a kg. The nurses stand in shock every morning because apparently, they have never had a patient weigh so exactly consistently! Today, one of them turned to him with wide eyes and asked, "Are you a robot?" He smirked, shrug...
Read more

Mama's Hero

The resilience and strength that kids have never ceases to amaze me. N was first diagnosed when he was a tiny little 6 year old. Even though we spent every one of those 6 years encouraging N that he's a big boy now, the fact is that 6 year olds are... only 6! For N, I certainly believe that because he never fully realized the gravity of his condition at the time, he plowed through and carried forward without doubt and without question. It sucked, it was unfair, but he dealt with it. As his mom, I think I take this for granted at times not fully understanding how experiencing something like this can influence a child at such a young age. When N was a baby and I would take him out in public, strangers worked extremely hard to elicit a smile, a smirk, acknowledgement.. anything! He was pensive from birth, but never expressive. Stoic and cool as a cucumber always. After we finished treatment 1.5 years ago, one of the marked differences I noticed in N was his expressiveness. He was nota...
Read more