Standing Pee and Other Triumphs

Busy week around here. On Sunday, Dante, Carina and I went to the aquarium. It was a nice day out and I knew we needed to get out. It wasn't too crowded, so it worked out well. Carina was happy as can be sitting in the stroller watching all the people and Dante. Dante was super cute showing all the fish to his Diego action figure. "Diego, look at all the fishes! Wow, Diego, Look at that!" I wish I had had extra hands to catch it on camera. We went through the aquarium twice, since he always wants to go back, and he barely stopped to look at anything. Then as we were leaving, he was begging to go back through again.

We were very excited to have daddy home on Monday night. We went to the airport and Dante told me we would see 4 airplanes and sure enough, that's how many we saw! I should have asked him for lotto numbers. Later, when we were getting into the bath, Dante peed standing up at the potty! Go Dante! That was a first for us, as we had put potty training on hold after diagnosis. He has since done that one other time and even written his own tune, called the "pee pee song". It goes like this: sway back and forth (because he does that for all the songs he writes), start out loud and get softer as you go down the scale, and sing each word slowly - "pee, pee, pee, pee" then repeat. Destined to become as big of a hit as his other tune, "dibba dabba".

I don't think Dante was ready to give up sharing the bed with me, so Chris has been reading to him in our bed at night and then we move him to his bed afterwards. When he wakes up and realizes he isn't in bed with us, he gets a bit upset, but he gets back to sleep pretty easily. Speaking of sleep, Carina is almost sleeping through the night...although 6 am is way too early for me, it's better than waking up all night long. She really just wants to eat and go back to sleep, but sometimes, Dante wakes in the process and then there is no getting her to sleep. She still wakes up a couple of times, but she's getting herself back to sleep pretty quickly, for the most part. Strangely, I am more tired than before when I was getting no sleep. Although my short term memory is improved. I guess my body suddenly realized- "Hey! We haven't had sleep in a long time! I want more!"

Tuesday night was the Outstanding Educator's Awards and my good friend Louise was a finalist. A bunch of us from school got dressed up to go support her and had a good time. We were very bummed that she didn't win, as she seemed much more deserving in her category than the others, but I am sure they are all great teachers. The teacher who won was a teacher at Lakewood when I was there, and she was definitely a stand out in the bunch. In the program was a list of nominees and one of my former students was in there! She teaches middle school - pretty cool. And I guess that should make me feel old, but I just felt proud of her for being nominated.


Hey, let's go get a CaT Scan!

Wednesday morning, we woke up at 5 am and had to get Dante to start drinking contrast for his CT scan. Luckily, he had woken from a dream around the same time, so that went pretty smoothly. We went in and had the usual level of high quality service and attention that Dante seems to get everywhere he goes. Amy and company were practically fighting over who got to take his vitals. By the time we left, he was covered head to toe in stickers. Things went much smoother than last time and we all agree that perhaps next time, we won't have to sedate him. It takes longer to get him prepped and sedated than it does to do the scan. None of us like sedating him, but getting him to stay still on the table was a near impossibility at the beginning. Now he seems much more at ease with it all.

He was very excited to get to say hi to the fishies and see "cars and people". We went up to our old digs in 2SW and ran into Sara, our Child Life Therapist, which made Dante very happy. He did one of those deals where he is super quiet while Sara is there and the second we walk away, "Dante see Sara!"

Wednesday night, we went out for our Valentine's dinner. We went to a local pizza place that we had only ever had take-out from, but it's always packed. They gave us one of those clip-on-the-table seats for Carina, which she loved, because she was closer to all the action. They gave Dante some pizza dough to play with and kids eat free on Wed - so it all worked out! Dante got some spaghetti and meatballs, which he loves. The entire evening was crisis-free and we felt like the model Nuclear Unit.



We finally got the results of the CT scan this morning. It doesn't say "normal", but it comes pretty close. There is a spot in the lungs that they think is related to his sedation and not breathing deeply enough. There is evidence of a larger thymus, but this is normal post-chemo growth. (Apparently, it shrinks during chemo, so it then enlarges after.) The left inguinal area where he had his biopsy and is always the area in question, is unchanged. No growth, but no shrinkage either. Also, I forgot to mention that our latest AFP test was 6.6!!! We are going to have another CT in one month to track the thymus growth and the left inguinal area. We will also do another AFP at that time. No doctor's appointments for one month. one. month. free!!!

Dante is definitely feeling good. His cheeks are rosy, he is super happy, super lovey dovey with hugs and kisses, playing well with his sister and just being a good kid. He has been napping again lately, which certainly can't hurt the attitude! Carina has also been super happy lately. We have truly been blessed with wonderfully magical children. Now if only we could get some sleep....