Forgive me blogger for I have sinned. It has been 5 days since my last blog.
This has been a crazy 5 days. You know when you have those weeks that seem to last forever (whether for good or bad or interesting reasons), and then when you look back on it, you are amazed that it was only 5 days? Well that has been my week. It has been such a crazy week, jammed with awesome, difficult, and interesting things that for the first time in the history of my life I had to go back and review my last posting to see what I had last talked about.
After reviewing my last post (and I must say I am a wonderful blogger), we are ready to begin.
Cole finished his chemo medicine on Sunday afternoon, but had to stay in the hospital Sunday night for post hydration. Sunday night turned into Monday night and it wasn’t until Tuesday that he finally got to go home. This third round of Chemo really kicked his ass with respect to nausea. We scrapped the super big Arizona Baker surprise and Chris spent the night with him on Monday night. We did manage to have Chris, Jackson, and Sophia do a muted surprise at the hospital, which helped a bunch.
On Tuesday one of the doctors came in to talk about Cole. At that time Cole had not eaten anything or drank anything that had stayed down for about 48 hours, so you can imagine that my little boy was just laying there like a blob. He was completely withdrawn and would not talk to anyone. The doctor started to talk about the likelihood of putting in a feeding tube into Cole’s nose. Cole rose from death’s doorstep and said, just like John Wayne would have (except make the exchange from the gun), “Give me an animal cracker.” Not too long after, Cole and Chris busted out of the hospital. They keep telling me that the hospital actually did discharge them, but I remain skeptical.
Iregardlessly, once we finally got him home, he was still very weak and had trouble keeping anything down. Jackson, Sophia, Logan, Elisa, Chris, and I used our magic powers of awesomeness to bring him around to the point that he is back to eating his frozen pizzas every day (Totinos…$1.50 per pizza…..42 grams of fat and about 1,000,000 calories which means that it is the most efficient calorie/$$ machine in the history of the world….and they are also strangely addicting….I think someone should look into this), being sassy, and most importantly smiling again. I can not begin to describe the effect that Jackson and Sophia had on Cole, and I can not thank them enough for coming. I really look forward to them moving out here for good.
I did have one very interesting and sobering moment. One evening Cole was not feeling super great, and he asked me to scratch his back for a while. As I was doing this, I thought back to when he first got sick (before we had any idea of what it was), and he would wake up crying in pain and feverish, the only way to get him to sleep was to lay with him and scratch his back. It was very painful for me laying there thinking about that and how at the time I was not overly concerned with Cole (I just figured he had the flu or something. I mean Cancer, really? ). Now I am not the sort of person who usually dwells on things or lets guilt get to me (some would say to my fundamentally shallow range of emotions), but that night, thinking back, almost crushed me.
As we approached Friday, April 1, 2011, the amount of stuff that Cole was acquiring was reaching critical mass, so we authorized some early birthday present opening. He got some very cool stuff (games, Sponge Bob, and the like), but one gift blew him away. Elisa’s friend, and former co-worker, teaches in Cupertino
On Friday Cole, the AZ Baker, and I all played some D&D (for those of you who are either not nerdy enough or too young to know what D&D is, please go find a 30ish nerd to explain), and Cole really got into the imaginative story aspect of the game. This is a game that I played as a kid, and it makes me so happy to share it with Cole.
We also had a great party on Friday. Given Cole’s iffy state with respect to how he was feeling, we tried to keep the party small. We told him to invite 4 boys to the party. In my mind it was going to be a pretty laid back party that would probably involve some video games. Well I did not figure in the additional family members that those kids would bring, the AZ Bakers, nor the Rindes. By the end of it all, we had a full house and a front yard full of screaming kids. It was a little overwhelming for Cole who spent most of the party in a corner of the deck watching. I know he was happy to have this return to a normal life event that was not defined by his Cancer even if he did not seem to show it on Friday.
Cole opened the rest of his gifts on Friday evening, and I must thank all of you who were so generous (most of you above and beyond what you have already given or helped) to help make Cole’s birthday one that he will remember for all the right reasons. Thank you.
Today we all went to the local nerd cave (also known as Gator Games) and Cole got to pick out a character figurine and some dice. Welcome to nerdville my son. The AZ Bakers left, and we then headed down to SJ to hang with the Rindes. Cole got to ride his bike around (and so did Logan who inherited Cole’s old bike), and we just enjoyed the nice weather.
All in all it was a nice week and I am glad that it is ending with Cole feeling good. We still have a long road ahead of us, but for now please raise your hand and toast Cole ESPN analyst.
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