Better spirits, less energy

Dante is much improved from our last post. Perhaps it was just the return to the hospital that freaked him out so bad. But, honestly, Chris and I had never seen him act that way before and had no idea how to handle tantrums that bad, especially away from home.

He has been super happy and silly the last 2 days. The only thing you notice is that he does want to sit in bed more and doesn't really want to walk for long periods of time. Although, he was jumping down the hallway earlier...then he says "Mommy up". However, he has regressed into a repetitiveness that is making me feel like my day is being narrated by a little voice. "Mommy change diaper", "Dante ride pole", "Adissa wipe line", "Dante temperature"...it's as if every thing we say and do is now a sound bite that gets repeated over and over.

Today's sound bite was "x-ray, big poop". They took an xray of his back this morning to see how his vertebrae were doing (his L2 has a compound fracture due to the tumor). The xray tech apparently told Chris that Dante has a "big number 2 in there", so Chris told Dante he had a big poop. When I arrived this morning, I heard about it. When I came back in the room this afternoon (mom had been with him for a couple of hours while Chris and I tried to escape to catch up on a Project Runway episode we missed) he tells me "big poop - all gone!".
I think it is a nervousness thing, but every so often, he tells me all sorts of things he has learned that day or that we did. Right before he fell asleep tonight, I heard "x-ray, blue button, light, taco neck(I dropped taco meat in his neck accidentally:), adissa, nancy, nonni, baby, daddy, mommy lay down..."

We think he has started to get some nausea. He got sick this morning as soon as they entered with his food tray. We had heard that smells will get to them. He also seemed to all of a sudden stop a lot of his movement and contemplate as if he was feeling sick. It's so hard with a 2 year old, as he has no idea how to tell you about strange feelings like that. When he did it last night, for the first time, I just said "you had yuckies in your mouth, it's OK." So, he says, "yuckies in mouth" and goes on with playing.

Mom bought Dante some more babylegs - this time with flames, so we had to put him in his Born Lucky T-shirt (Thanks Denise!) and take a photo. His hair has even fallen out in almost a mohawk pattern, so he looks pretty hip. :)

Dante is in love with his oncologist, Dr. Grana. He gets so excited whenever he sees her and says her name. He lays so still for her when she comes in. I had thought he was still tender in his groin area because he flinches and moves so much for me when I change his diaper. Then she comes in and he doesn't move a muscle, even as she is applying serious pressure to all of the areas where the tumors are! I suppose he is being 2.

Speaking of that, Dr. Grana said she can't really feel the tumors anymore. The large one at the pelvic floor can only be felt if you really push and are trying to find something (you should see the look on Dante's face during that part of the exam.) The lymph nodes in the groin are now just feeling like scar tissue from the biopsy and the original smashed node. We will get a CT scan after this round of chemo to check his progress.

Tomorrow is CBC day, so we'll be getting an update on his ANC, and it's also day number 5 for this round - Woo hoo! It's gotten a little quieter around the hospital as many of the other kids have gone home. Ironically, most of the kids that are still here are the ones that were here upon our arrival. So I assume that they are also on long term protocols. Hopefully the beds won't fill back up over the next two days. Keep your fingers crossed....



Dante and Nancy blow bubbles on our last visit.