Escape!

Dante must be feeling better because he is spazzing out!

Some of you may recall a Saturday Night Live skit called "Geek, Dork, or Spaz" wherein the contestants of a game show having the aforementioned title, would attempt to identify which category the "example" guest fell into. Until recently, Dante usually fell into the first category, but lately he has definitely branched out!

I'm pretty sure it's just his excitement over being at home, and in familiar surroundings. He has become increasingly observant and verbal. Very interested in communicating all sorts of observations and experiences throughout the day. At night, while we're getting ready for bedtime, he will recount all sorts of things from earlier in the day; a daily recap of sorts. It's really cute.

He is also getting much more comfortable with the whole cancer experience in general. He likes to help out during regular procedures like Dr. visits and exams. He holds out his line so the nurses can access his port, and this morning he even wiped off the end of his insuflon (mini-port) so I could give him his GCSF injection. He did really well during that, and was very excited to recall the process of "Daddy gave-a medicine a-Dante, and Dante a-wipe oval band-aid!"

He is generally in good spirits, although he's been skipping his afternoon nap and that makes the evenings a bit volatile, but also an early bedtime!

Tuesday we decided to get out of the house while the gettin' was good (ANC @ 1100). We piled the whole crew into the Swedish Mullet and made our way over to Lowry Park Zoo. What is up with that place?! Is it ever less than 97 degrees there? No wonder the animals are always sleeping.... Anyway, we arrived and made our way in, to the repeated request of "Elephan-nan-nan. Elephan-nan-nan." We went past the first few areas but Dante was dead set on seeing some elephants, so we pushed on past the other moms and strollers until we got to the elephant exhibit.

We got to see the new baby elephant, along with some zebras and giraffes. A few sleeping rhinos as well.
Dante was unimpressed. We strolled up to the giraffe feeding area and were completely grossed out by the foot-long, articulated, blue tongue of the giraffe snatching up crackers from snotty little hands. Dante was mildly amused.

Next it was "Deer. Deer. Wolf. Wolf." We go see the deer. Totally uninterested. On to the wolf. Nowhere to be seen. Saw some really cool manatees frolicking in the tank. Dante wanted to move on.






Dante leads our tour of the zoo








All in all, it was a bust. At least we didn't have to pay to get in.

Flash forward to bedtime; "Dante in-a zoo! Dante and Mommy and Daddy in-a zoo! Enephan-nan, an giraffe, an zebra, an manateeee!" "An-a monkey a "oooh-ooh-ooh!""

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Had a doctor visit on Wednesday. It went really well. I thought we were going to be out of there in record time, but then Dr.Aung decided that because his sodium and phosphorous were low, she wanted more blood work done for his chemistry. Up to that point we had gotten away with a finger prick, but now he would have to have his port accessed.
"Can't we just have him eat some pretzels, drink some Gatorade and check it again on Friday?"
"No. We really need to check it now to see if it's low."
"Alright. But if he gets pissed, I'm telling him it was your fault...."

The accessing went okay, and we waited around for a bit. I commiserated with the nurse, Jennifer, who has been on the case with Aetna regarding our GCSF prescription that got messed up. We decided to give those monkeys one more chance before we look for another resource. What cluster#@$! that was, but we finally got the meds and everything worked out, after much frustration. I'll spare you all the rant, suffice it to say that if you've seen the commercial where the guy is in the office with all the chimps, well, I think it was in regards to the Aetna Specialty Pharmacy head office. The Orlando folks, however, are on the ball, so kudos to them.

I digress. Port accessed, blood drawn, tests running. You can go. Come back on Friday. Wear sunscreen and don't stay out too long in the heat. - Thanks for tip.

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Today we decided to get out and run some errands and in the afternoon Dante got to have a playdate with his friend Tyler. That boy is a sight to behold. Smart as a whip, and moving at near super-sonic speeds. I swear, I think we had a whirlwind fly through the house today! He was so excited by all of Dante's stuff that I think Dante got excited too. You should have seen him chase the cats. He's running around scaring the life out of these ancient pieces of fur, and Dante was like "Yeah, good luck with that. I tried already. They're not interested."

They had a good time and were really pleased to see each other - for the most part. Dante had skipped his nap, so towards the evening he was getting a bit cranky, but overall a success. It was good to see Heather and Tyler and Gretchen (their baby girl).

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During playtime, the phones were ringing off the wall. At one point the Dr.'s office called. They wanted to remind us to give Dante the Lidocaine before tomorrow's visit, and that he will have a complete chemistry done again. And by the way, his sodium did turn out to be a bit low so the Dr. would like you have Dante eat some chips or pretzels to help boost those numbers......