The last two days have been great, but bittersweet. Cole came home on Wednesday evening but was very tired and did not interact very much. Thursday was better, but he quickly tired and getting him to eat was a chore. The doctors had at one point told me that Cole’s tumor was pushing on his stomach a little which makes him feel full even if he has not eaten very much. Take that problem back about a month and it is understandable why he looks so skinny. When I say skinny I mean that if he were older I would have thought that he had anorexia. Cole’s diet is supposed to be high fat, high protein. The problem with that kind of diet is that it is very filling in a normal situation. In Cole’s situation, the premature fullness is magnified.
My solution (and I am pretty sure it is a brilliant one) has been to have him eat a small, snack size, amount of food every single hour. His “snacks” are as high in fat and protein as I can find. He eats tuna with mayo on crackers, salami and cheese, and goldfish crackers. I know what you are thinking, but goldfish crackers have a crazy amount of fat (omg, who knew? omg, I just said omg. omg I did it again. omg, I am possessed and I can’t stop.). We spent yesterday and today easing into this new routine. I like it because it gives Cole a fairly consistent stream of energy, and it also gets him used to eating again in lower stress environments (not eating is such a foreign concept to me that I have trouble when my kids do not eat. For me when I feel bad, I eat. If eating makes me feel worse, I eat faster.).
For dinner tonight we had steak. I have been dreading this meal since I first saw the dietary restrictions. Many parents will not understand how traumatizing it was for me to tell Cole that we had to cook his steaks well done (for me as well as him, but this is not about me. It is about Cole. Please stay focused) To my amazement and supreme happiness, Cole not only ate all the steak that Elisa put on his plate, he also ate all his green beans and his salad. To top it all off, he even ate all his seconds of steak and asked for thirds. He did not get through his thirds.
I have spent a great deal of time in the last two hours since dinner trying to figure out why we were so successful in getting him to eat. It is, I am certain, a two part solution. The first is that Elisa clearly put in some mommy magic into the cooking. I am convinced that a mother can will her child into health given the right circumstances. The second is that we cooked his steak in Baker BBQ sauce, and gave him some Baker BBQ sauce on the side. I am not sure which was the primary factor in him eating (Elisa don’t read this……It was clearly the BBQ sauce that I had made, and for those interested we will soon have the BBQ sauce for sale on the donations page. Stay tuned), but regardless he ate, and I am happy.
I am, in fact so happy that I think the California Bakers are going to be treated to some Daddy Waffles tomorrow morning for breakfast. As you know, Daddy waffles are very different that Daddy pancakes.
I am happy to report that for the first time since this whole thing started that I will go to sleep with a fair degree of confidence that even though the Balrog pulled us off the precipice, we are no longer falling helplessly. We have begun to fight back. For that reason please raise your glass and toast Cole the award winning author.
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