tom's blog

where did the week go?

It's Thursday night already. Definitely looking forward to the weekend.

As per the schedule, there were no treatments the past couple of days. Anna does go in tomorrow (Fri) for another round of treatment. I think Lele (aka nana/stalker) is going to take her over and my mom is going to hang out with TJ around the house.

She's continued to feel a extra little tired and achy this week. Nothing significant, but definitely enough to pop a few Tylenols or an occasional prescription pain med (the good stuff).

Although I only get to see everyone for a couple of hours at night, it sounds like they've had a pretty good week. Definitely lots of chit-chat and a little bit of shopping along the way. From what I see, TJ manages to keep them entertained and busy from morning until late at night.

Jets/Patriots are on tonight, so short post for tonight... J-E-T-S. JETS. JETS. JETS. I'll probably be out for some drinks tomorrow (Fri) night, so drop me an email if you are around.

Chemo on Monday, rest for a few days and then Chemo on Friday

With the chemo treatments, there are a couple different types of chemo. I've been just generically referring to it as chemo treatment but there really is a significant difference in the way the chemo is administered and the effect that it has on the body. If I was smart enough to spell the drugs, I'd list them out but they all have about 12-15 characters and its probably not all that relevant anyways. The important part is that the current cycle that she is on tends to beat her up a little more than some of the others. Her white blood cell count remains a little low, so on Monday, she received a shot to help with that. She received chemo on Monday and has been pretty achy all around.

On Monday, TJ went over to the hospital along with Anna and my parents. It was the first time TJ was able to meet Dr. Grossman (her primary Oncology doctor). Dr Grossman has a child who is about a year older than TJ so he's able to relate pretty well. TJ was apparently on his best behavior and apparently told Dr Grossman that he was doing a good job (or gu-job in 2 year old speak).

My parents have really been able to spend some good time with TJ and it's great to see how close they have become. My dad always seem to get TJ saying something strange like Matsuiiiiiiii. On Monday when they were in the hospital, one of the nurses would come on the overhead every once in a while to say "paging Dr Smith" or whatever. The first couple times, my dad would put his hands up and say "who's that". By the third time, TJ was doing it as well much to the delight of all the other people over at the hospital, especially those that didn't watch my dad teach him this new trick. That's pretty much the stage we are at - if you do it or say it, TJ is going to repeat it... which is generally cute, until when he couldn't open up the laptop the other day and said "oh sh*t" about 3 times in a row.

Anna's Godsister, who is also TJ's Godmother, who is sometimes known as lele, who is sometimes known a Ili, sometimes known as Nana, not to be confused with the ill na na, and sometimes known as the stalker got into town today. It's the first time that she has seen Anna since this started. They got to spend some good time together chit-chatting like little school girls and praying together. The chit-chatting is still going on at 10:15pm, so if it doesn't break up soon, I'm going to have to lay down the law.

good week and a new schedule

Anna's chemo schedule changed a bit this past week. She was supposed to have treatment on Monday and Thursday, but on both days her platelets were low. On Thursday, the doctor decided she should come back on Friday for a blood + platelet transfusion and chemo treatment. The transfusions helps to bring her platelets and other counts back to a "normal" range. Whenever they do the transfusion, it is a several hour process. So, her and her Aunt spent most of Friday morning over at the hospital with the blood transfusion and then chemo treatment. She is back over there next week for a couple days of chemo treatment. All of these changes to her are just par for the course. They set out with a schedule, but approach it with flexibility as the most important thing at this point is to have her feel comfortable and remain feeling pretty good. This past week, she was a little more tired and beat up than in previous weeks but nothing too alarming. It was just a good week for taking it easy and not doing too much. Her Aunt went home on Saturday. She did a great job of cleaning the house from top to bottom. Every time I came home, she was ripping through another room and getting all those hard to reach places that don't get a lot of attention. The house definitely needed a thorough cleaning like that.

TJ and Anna's parents came out on Saturday and I think he was excited to be back home. He's so smart... as they get on to the bridge to come out to NJ, he always says "home" and then says it a few more times on the ride and as they pull up out front. It's pretty crazy what kids learn and repeat. Her parents went back home last night, so it was just the three of us out here. We had this weird moment just before bedtime where TJ was running from room to room and everything felt kind of normal for a moment. It's been tough, but you really do appreciate those moments of normalcy. I was also able to go out for a couple drinks on Friday and it felt good to catch up with a few people that I hadn't seen in a while.

My parents are heading down today... my father will be here for a few days and my mom will spend the week. TJ's out here all week, so I'm pretty excited about getting to see him every night. He's definitely my boy... he follows me just about everywhere and wants to be part of everything I do.

I realize I've been a bit slow with the postings lately. I'm going to try to settle into a schedule of Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday... but will definitely post something if anything significant happens (positive or negative). You should always assume that no news is good news.

No word on Tino yet, so we remain optimistic that things will work out in his new home. We should know for sure in another week or so.