Hellooooo?

Thursday morning as I zipped Jace’s jacket at the front door while he watched for the bus, I reminded him softly that I would pick him up for chemo after school. His jaw dropped, and he went silent for a second.

“Today?” he questioned as his bottom lip quivered, and his eyes filled with tears.

“Yes honey. Today,” I replied, fighting my own emotion. I decided right then we need help! We need to learn to celebrate chemotherapy.  I’ve heard of people dressing in a particular color on chemo days…but I’m really at a loss for any other ideas…and I’m not sure wearing a specific color would make a chemo day  better for Jace. Come on friends…any thoughts? I need some fun ideas. Can anyone think of anything??

Luckily, Doctor H, Linda, Leslie, and Becky (our fabulous nurses!) and all the other staff at the Doctor’s Office saved the day this time by spoiling Jace as usual. At least he looks forward to seeing his “other family” at Teton Oncology. I even have proof of how much he gets spoiled:

(Thanks Linda and everyone. We sure love you.)

Chemo went fine, but I know WHY Jace’s lip quivered when he realized he had chemo that day...he has been sick to his stomach in the mornings since his treatment, his back hurts, he's weak and tired, yet he can't sleep, and he’s had a headache. In other words, he KNOWS now what chemo does. He really hates feeling sick, but one cool thing about Jace is if you ask him how he’s doing, he’ll always say fine. 

I just asked him why he always replies that he's "fine" when I know he feels yucky.  He replied, "Because I AM fine, mom. Helloooooo?" 

Round Two

To briefly update those of you who might be reading, we left the hospital Friday morning, with plans to return again Saturday for another round of antibiotics. After a pretty mellow Friday, Jace felt better by that night, and was able to attend Hayden's football game Saturday morning. WHAT a beautiful day! Jace's temperature was down a bit, Hayden played TOUGH as usual, and we didn't go back to the hospital until late afternoon.  As we walked out of Madison Memorial after Jace received round two of the antibiotic, I said to Matt, "I think that may  have been the most pleasant experience we've had at the hospital yet." He agreed by saying, "It's getting easier, isn't it?" Thank you Nurses Tammy and Denise (and Karen from Friday). We appreciate you!

 

Fevers

Oh the JOY of cancer. It's 3:45 AM, and we are in the ER. Jace's fever started rising about 9 PM, so we watched it for a while, and at 101.4 we forced ourselves to call his doctor. We really hated waking the good Doc at 1 AM, but when Jace couldn't sleep anymore for his cough and aches, we knew it was the right thing to do.  They just took chest x-rays and blood...and he's receiving a bag of fluids and antibiotics. We'll know more in a while.

In the meantime, here we are. Jace was so mad at us for taking his temperature over and over again because he doesn't WANT to be sick, but by the time we arrived at the hospital, he was too tired to fight us. I would cuss fevers except that his fever a year ago helped us find his cancer...so ...technically we should be grateful for the sign that something is wrong. I'm working on my "we are thankful for this fever!" face. This fever helped him get the antibiotic he needs to fight whatever his body is fighting. It's a good thing nobody's going to *see* my "thankful for fevers face" for a few hours, though.  I need to perfect the conviction. :)