Here we are at the beginning of week 4 of treatment. The *last* of the hospital weeks, thank goodness. It's been a fairly rough ride thus far, but not unbearable thanks to luck and lots of support from many friends and family. Bobbie maintains 18 hour sleep days and is pretty much entirely out of energy when she is awake. Mornings are best for her, but even her energy then is quickly spent. I'm not quite sure how she is going to magically shift back into regular life next week, but we'll have to see how it all works out when that time comes. No doubt it will be tough at first as Killian is quite the ball of energy these days and requires a lot of it to keep up with him. Hopefully the reduced at home dosage of the Interferon in conjunction with the prescription speed that they have her on (Ritalin) will leave her with more pep to get through it.
My birthday last Monday was the worst in my 36 years here thus far thanks to a myriad of things. The two primary: Bobbie's illness and Killian's decision to wake up at 2:30am on my birthday when I had just crawled into bed at 1:30am. He decided to stay awake until 5:30am when I had to get up (having not gone to bed) for work. Youch. Ugly day that was. However, if I only have a bad one every 36 years, then I'm good to go for quite sometime. And thanks to all who sent cards and gifts. They were appreciated bad day aside. :)
The past few weeks have been very hectic for me even if life were normal outside of the workplace, but I'm making it. However, I really need to get to bed now to try to keep up my beauty sleep so I'll keep this post a short one. I'll add an entertaining email that I received from a friend for your reading pleasure. You've seen some like it before, no doubt, but it rings true in any case...
----------------------------
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and
NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because .
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We r ode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had try-outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!
If YOU are one of us . . . CONGRATULATIONS!
August 30, 2006
August 19, 2006
Corn can be tasty
OK, two weeks down and still going. It was rough beginning to the second week of treatment with the nausea increasing, but it appeared to level off a bit as the week went on. Still a lot of sleeping, but lesser fevers it seems.
The workplace continued to bring dinner to us daily up until Tuesday. On that day, they provided us with a 12 meal program from Super Suppers. Basically it's 12 six portion meals prepared and packaged individually for easy cooking with a set of quick instructions. So far I've tried the spiced meatballs. Very tasty. The challenge: making room in the freezer for all of it. Apparently, I gots the skillz though as I made them all fit. As stated before, a HUGE pile of thanks to those involved in coordinating that effort.
I just started goofing around with a free online MMORPG today, Mythos. Looks like it's a well though out, well put together game. Give it a glance if you're interested. It is all online, so that is nice. No software to install or game system needed. It runs similar to a MUD, but with a GUI interface and teams in the form of kingdoms.
On a freaky note, the town of Cary, NC discovered e-coli in the water supply so restaurants around the city are closed today and possibly through the weekend. That has to hurt financially. How much would that suck? You're not allowed to open even if you promise to use only bottled water, etc. I guess it's really virtually impossible to operate an eatery without running tap water, but it still has to suck for them. Sucks for the residents of the town as well, of course, but at least they are allowed to go to their homes.
Admitted with slight embarrassment, I watched the majority of America's Got Talent this season. I have to say that I think the correct winner was chosen and was the one that I had picked after her first performance. That girl can sing. I don't dig any of the songs or style that she chose, but have to credit her spectacular voice. For entertainment value, however, I think that The Passing Zone (jugglers) was the best show in the house. How in Hell Rappin' Granny made it to the finals is beyond my ability to understand. Not only was she painfully bad to suffer through, but other quality acts lost out as a result. On a side note with which many will disagree, apparently Piers is the only judge worth listening to. I don't agree with everything he says always or his opinions on every act, but he offers the most useful criticism of the three by far. Apparently the rule for Brandy is "if you are a singer, you're in". OK, enough chatter about America's Got Talent. It's not good enough to spend anymore words on.
The workplace continued to bring dinner to us daily up until Tuesday. On that day, they provided us with a 12 meal program from Super Suppers. Basically it's 12 six portion meals prepared and packaged individually for easy cooking with a set of quick instructions. So far I've tried the spiced meatballs. Very tasty. The challenge: making room in the freezer for all of it. Apparently, I gots the skillz though as I made them all fit. As stated before, a HUGE pile of thanks to those involved in coordinating that effort.
I just started goofing around with a free online MMORPG today, Mythos. Looks like it's a well though out, well put together game. Give it a glance if you're interested. It is all online, so that is nice. No software to install or game system needed. It runs similar to a MUD, but with a GUI interface and teams in the form of kingdoms.
On a freaky note, the town of Cary, NC discovered e-coli in the water supply so restaurants around the city are closed today and possibly through the weekend. That has to hurt financially. How much would that suck? You're not allowed to open even if you promise to use only bottled water, etc. I guess it's really virtually impossible to operate an eatery without running tap water, but it still has to suck for them. Sucks for the residents of the town as well, of course, but at least they are allowed to go to their homes.
Admitted with slight embarrassment, I watched the majority of America's Got Talent this season. I have to say that I think the correct winner was chosen and was the one that I had picked after her first performance. That girl can sing. I don't dig any of the songs or style that she chose, but have to credit her spectacular voice. For entertainment value, however, I think that The Passing Zone (jugglers) was the best show in the house. How in Hell Rappin' Granny made it to the finals is beyond my ability to understand. Not only was she painfully bad to suffer through, but other quality acts lost out as a result. On a side note with which many will disagree, apparently Piers is the only judge worth listening to. I don't agree with everything he says always or his opinions on every act, but he offers the most useful criticism of the three by far. Apparently the rule for Brandy is "if you are a singer, you're in". OK, enough chatter about America's Got Talent. It's not good enough to spend anymore words on.
August 15, 2006
Week 2, Day 2
First, thank you to all who have offered words, thoughts and prayers of kindness throughout this ordeal so far. It's wonderful to know that I have so many caring friends and family out there.
We are wrapping up the 2nd day of the 2nd week of treatment. The first week went by fairly uneventfully. Well, at least as uneventfully as one can hope during this experience. At the end of the first week, nausea starting a bit in Bobbie and the docs say that is normal as the medication begins to accumulate in your system, but otherwise she basically just slept most of that first week and had a fever from time to time that Tylenol seemed to have knocked out on all occasions.
As of tonight, the nausea was apparently pretty bad though her fever didn't spike up too high (not above 100 degrees) so far. The medications that they gave her for nausea appear to be helping. I'm sure it would be awful without them. They have prescribed Kytril, Prochlorperazine (though oral and not rectal as the link indicates) and Ativan for nausea. The Ativan is the scary one as it is a narcotic for anxiety relief and they said to take that only in addition to the Prochlorperazine if the nausea doesn't subside. We ended up having to go to Ativan tonight, but it seems to have done the trick to get her through the most recent bout of nausea. Here's hoping that it doesn't get worse throughout the week.
Killian gave me my first "he's a boy" scare today. I got a call from the babysitter at about 3:30pm telling me that Killian, while playing with his 2-year old and 4-year old, had taken a group spill with them and started crying. Apparently he got up with a bit of a limp on his left and when trying to run would fall as a result of his left leg/ankle/foot giving way. Of course, the standard reaction to illness/injury to an immediate family member is for me to basically panic so I left work and headed over to get him. When I got there, he was sitting in a chair eating Cheerios and watching television with the other two boys. His foot/ankle *looked* to be OK (no bruising/swelling/bones sticking out) and though he appeared to be walking on it a bit gingerly, he didn't appear to be in any real pain. I did see him start to run a couple of times only to fall and start crawling, it being obvious a result of his sore foot/ankle. So, to give myself some peace of mind, I took him in to see the doctor and have them give him the thumbs up. Of course, while there, he would demonstrate no symptoms and went so far as to jump around a bit just to let the doctor know that I am truly the baby between the two of us. So, she twisted his leg and foot around and gave his foot, ankle, knee and hip all the doctoral approval. So, hopefully all is well and he will be back to fully functional in no time. At the end of it all, I felt bad mostly for the babysitter. It's scary enough when your own kid hurts himself, but it's got to be a whole different level of scary when one that you are watching does so. Andy, if you're reading this, it's all good. :)
Otherwise, work is really hectic of course as it has been over the past several weeks. I am working on HP OpenView installation, configuration and training over the next few weeks which is pretty interesting but I have a million other things going on at the same time, so I'm also quite distracted from it.
Many of you ask about how I am doing and I keep writing about things going on around me instead. I am tired, but in good spirits. Between watching the little guy all of the time while Bobbie is out of it, waking up to make sure she gets her medicine on time, going in to work earlier than normal to try to make up for time missed both on my week out and trying to get out at a decent time to relieve those watching the wife & kid when I am working and the general stress of it all, I am a little worn but I will make it. The naive glee of the little guy every day wipes it all away when I see him and he exclaims whatever form of "dad" that he chooses at the time and runs over to me. And having the week to spend with both he and Bobbie even though she slept through most of it was wonderful as well. Finally, having a loving wife and knowing that this is all to improve the chances that she will be around for a long time to come tops it all off. So, overall I guess I'm not to shabby.
We are wrapping up the 2nd day of the 2nd week of treatment. The first week went by fairly uneventfully. Well, at least as uneventfully as one can hope during this experience. At the end of the first week, nausea starting a bit in Bobbie and the docs say that is normal as the medication begins to accumulate in your system, but otherwise she basically just slept most of that first week and had a fever from time to time that Tylenol seemed to have knocked out on all occasions.
As of tonight, the nausea was apparently pretty bad though her fever didn't spike up too high (not above 100 degrees) so far. The medications that they gave her for nausea appear to be helping. I'm sure it would be awful without them. They have prescribed Kytril, Prochlorperazine (though oral and not rectal as the link indicates) and Ativan for nausea. The Ativan is the scary one as it is a narcotic for anxiety relief and they said to take that only in addition to the Prochlorperazine if the nausea doesn't subside. We ended up having to go to Ativan tonight, but it seems to have done the trick to get her through the most recent bout of nausea. Here's hoping that it doesn't get worse throughout the week.
Killian gave me my first "he's a boy" scare today. I got a call from the babysitter at about 3:30pm telling me that Killian, while playing with his 2-year old and 4-year old, had taken a group spill with them and started crying. Apparently he got up with a bit of a limp on his left and when trying to run would fall as a result of his left leg/ankle/foot giving way. Of course, the standard reaction to illness/injury to an immediate family member is for me to basically panic so I left work and headed over to get him. When I got there, he was sitting in a chair eating Cheerios and watching television with the other two boys. His foot/ankle *looked* to be OK (no bruising/swelling/bones sticking out) and though he appeared to be walking on it a bit gingerly, he didn't appear to be in any real pain. I did see him start to run a couple of times only to fall and start crawling, it being obvious a result of his sore foot/ankle. So, to give myself some peace of mind, I took him in to see the doctor and have them give him the thumbs up. Of course, while there, he would demonstrate no symptoms and went so far as to jump around a bit just to let the doctor know that I am truly the baby between the two of us. So, she twisted his leg and foot around and gave his foot, ankle, knee and hip all the doctoral approval. So, hopefully all is well and he will be back to fully functional in no time. At the end of it all, I felt bad mostly for the babysitter. It's scary enough when your own kid hurts himself, but it's got to be a whole different level of scary when one that you are watching does so. Andy, if you're reading this, it's all good. :)
Otherwise, work is really hectic of course as it has been over the past several weeks. I am working on HP OpenView installation, configuration and training over the next few weeks which is pretty interesting but I have a million other things going on at the same time, so I'm also quite distracted from it.
Many of you ask about how I am doing and I keep writing about things going on around me instead. I am tired, but in good spirits. Between watching the little guy all of the time while Bobbie is out of it, waking up to make sure she gets her medicine on time, going in to work earlier than normal to try to make up for time missed both on my week out and trying to get out at a decent time to relieve those watching the wife & kid when I am working and the general stress of it all, I am a little worn but I will make it. The naive glee of the little guy every day wipes it all away when I see him and he exclaims whatever form of "dad" that he chooses at the time and runs over to me. And having the week to spend with both he and Bobbie even though she slept through most of it was wonderful as well. Finally, having a loving wife and knowing that this is all to improve the chances that she will be around for a long time to come tops it all off. So, overall I guess I'm not to shabby.
August 09, 2006
Updates and How do you do's
I've been accused of many things, but not often enough a poor blogger apparently. Sorry for the lack of posting of late, but life has been a little hectic as many of you know.
By far, the most involved task has been the coordination of Bobbie's cancer treatment. She started the initial 4-week stint on Monday and has reacted fairly well (as far as I know of possible reactions) thus far. Mostly she has been tired, sleeping up to 14 hours per day. In addition a fever peaking at about 101 degrees and holding around the 99 mark most of the time. She has to take Tylenol every 4 hours throughout the treatment to help keep the fever down. She also has to take Benadryll and some powerful (and expensive) anti-nausea drug 1/2 hour before her treatments. They double the dosage of the Interferon in the 2nd week of treatment and then double it again in the 3rd week, so we're not really sure what to expect, but hopefully her reaction will be similarly mild throughout.
I am staying home with her for this first week and from an entertaining a 2-year old while looking after the wife perspective, I have to tell you that a day at work is far easier. Some of the challenge comes in the fact that her treatments are scheduled mid-afternoon which would typically be nap time for Killian, so we're having to try to cram his nap in early each day. Hopefully he'll be happy to move back to longer naps when it's all said and done. Also, there is not much in the way of 2-year old entertainment anywhere near the hospital, so it's tough to keep him occupied for 1.5 hours while she's getting the IV. In addition, I'm trying to do a little work throughout the day and then after I put him to bed, so that adds a little burden to it all. I don't want a big pile of work waiting for me when I get back next week. As a bonus feature, Killian has thrown in an unprecedented 2am-ish wake-up over the past 2 nights. He's been pretty easy to get back to sleep with a short back rub, but I still have to wake up and walk my way into his room and then proceed to get myself back to sleep only to fall victim to his 6:30am daily wake-up call. Anyone who knows me knows that I am in no way a morning person, so this is probably the toughest on me overall.
On an awesome note, people from the IT department at work have been bringing dinner by each night and are apparently going to continue for at least the course of this first week. I can't tell you how much this means to not only me in terms of not having to prepare dinner for the family each night, but to us overall as a humanitarian gesture. It is truly very touching.
On other notes of potential interest, Killian is now sleeping in a toddler bed and has been for a couple of weeks. He loves it, but still won't climb out of it until one of us is in the room with him in the mornings. Not sure what that's all about, but I'm guessing habit from the crib which he fortunately never tried to climb out of to our knowledge. It's a Spider-man bed with Spider-man linens, so it's extra cool. Maybe that's why he doesn't want to climb out of it. :) He is also starting to roll of more words each week. I've lost count of how many, but he's definitely on the verge of forming some sentences. He has done at least one simple one, "Want go pool." when he wanted to go to the pool the other day. He was handing Bobbie his life jacket when he said it. He's a fanatic for the pool. Can't get enough of it. We have a speech therapist that comes once per week on Thursdays to help Killian along. I'll be meeting her tomorrow for the first time.
Speaking of first times, I went to Gymboree with him for the first time this week. Gaaaaaaaay. He had a fun time though and it is a nice layout for little kids to wildly run about and play. It's just the organized stuff that's gay. However, since the kids seems to enjoy it, I can live with it for now. I might add that I was the only dad present among the 12 or so attendees.
Well, it's late and I have to get up with said kiddo early tomorrow, but I will try to post more sooner than later. Many of you have asked me for updates on Bobbie so I figured I owed you one at the very least. Until next time...
By far, the most involved task has been the coordination of Bobbie's cancer treatment. She started the initial 4-week stint on Monday and has reacted fairly well (as far as I know of possible reactions) thus far. Mostly she has been tired, sleeping up to 14 hours per day. In addition a fever peaking at about 101 degrees and holding around the 99 mark most of the time. She has to take Tylenol every 4 hours throughout the treatment to help keep the fever down. She also has to take Benadryll and some powerful (and expensive) anti-nausea drug 1/2 hour before her treatments. They double the dosage of the Interferon in the 2nd week of treatment and then double it again in the 3rd week, so we're not really sure what to expect, but hopefully her reaction will be similarly mild throughout.
I am staying home with her for this first week and from an entertaining a 2-year old while looking after the wife perspective, I have to tell you that a day at work is far easier. Some of the challenge comes in the fact that her treatments are scheduled mid-afternoon which would typically be nap time for Killian, so we're having to try to cram his nap in early each day. Hopefully he'll be happy to move back to longer naps when it's all said and done. Also, there is not much in the way of 2-year old entertainment anywhere near the hospital, so it's tough to keep him occupied for 1.5 hours while she's getting the IV. In addition, I'm trying to do a little work throughout the day and then after I put him to bed, so that adds a little burden to it all. I don't want a big pile of work waiting for me when I get back next week. As a bonus feature, Killian has thrown in an unprecedented 2am-ish wake-up over the past 2 nights. He's been pretty easy to get back to sleep with a short back rub, but I still have to wake up and walk my way into his room and then proceed to get myself back to sleep only to fall victim to his 6:30am daily wake-up call. Anyone who knows me knows that I am in no way a morning person, so this is probably the toughest on me overall.
On an awesome note, people from the IT department at work have been bringing dinner by each night and are apparently going to continue for at least the course of this first week. I can't tell you how much this means to not only me in terms of not having to prepare dinner for the family each night, but to us overall as a humanitarian gesture. It is truly very touching.
On other notes of potential interest, Killian is now sleeping in a toddler bed and has been for a couple of weeks. He loves it, but still won't climb out of it until one of us is in the room with him in the mornings. Not sure what that's all about, but I'm guessing habit from the crib which he fortunately never tried to climb out of to our knowledge. It's a Spider-man bed with Spider-man linens, so it's extra cool. Maybe that's why he doesn't want to climb out of it. :) He is also starting to roll of more words each week. I've lost count of how many, but he's definitely on the verge of forming some sentences. He has done at least one simple one, "Want go pool." when he wanted to go to the pool the other day. He was handing Bobbie his life jacket when he said it. He's a fanatic for the pool. Can't get enough of it. We have a speech therapist that comes once per week on Thursdays to help Killian along. I'll be meeting her tomorrow for the first time.
Speaking of first times, I went to Gymboree with him for the first time this week. Gaaaaaaaay. He had a fun time though and it is a nice layout for little kids to wildly run about and play. It's just the organized stuff that's gay. However, since the kids seems to enjoy it, I can live with it for now. I might add that I was the only dad present among the 12 or so attendees.
Well, it's late and I have to get up with said kiddo early tomorrow, but I will try to post more sooner than later. Many of you have asked me for updates on Bobbie so I figured I owed you one at the very least. Until next time...
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