Some Thanks, Some Work, Some Pictures, Some Chemo, Some Update

Some Thanks

Richard's family (his dad's side)
-All got together to have a little shin dig in order to help us out and very graciously bestowed upon us a hefty amount of Superstore gift cards for our grocery shopping needs. Thanks to everyone, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great aunts, great uncles, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, eighth cousins twice removed, step cousins, half cousins, cousin It, Thing, ... oh wait.. wrong family.

Seriously though. Thank you. You have no idea how much this helps and is appreciated. Wow.

Michele D. (my colleague, friend, and Luv Muffin)
-Thank you for the gift cards: Earls, Milestones, AND Starbucks! And the really sweet magnet. I'm so sorry I missed you! I was at the playground with the boys! I wish I had gotten to see you. Soon, I hope.

Richard (that guy I love)
-Thanks for taking care of the boys today and tomorrow so I could go into work. (Normally, this would just be a normal part of life for Richard to be home with the boys alone for a day sometimes, but I know how exhausted he gets right now, so I'm sure this was a 'big day' for him). Thank goodness they both nap so you can get some rest. Thanks for nacho-dinner too. What a treat!
-Richard took the boys to a playground they'd never been to today too! AJ loves going to 'new' playgrounds.

Some Work
-Well, I'm back to work next week. A whopping once a week on Wednesdays. It's amazing how much there was to move to my new school (intermediate stuff - grade 6/7), and how much there was to take home (primary stuff - grade 1). I was in today doing all the moving in. Tomorrow, I'm in again, but this time sorting out the fiddly bits and getting my day plan ready for the first day of school.

Some Pictures
-Each August/September I like Richard and I to take the boys to the park to do some photos for my frames in the living room, and inevitably for the grandparents. I figure, in the future, I'll only be doing formal pictures of the boys around their birthdays, and doing pictures at the end of summer, puts them both in and around the 'half a year older' point. So, here are some of my favourite pictures at the park of Dexter just past 1.5 years old and AJ at almost 3.5 years old.

















Some Chemo
-Richard will start his 2nd round of "consolidation chemotherapy" (3rd round of chemo thus far) on Tuesday, September 8th, as he mentioned in his blog yesterday. Norma will arrive in town that day, meet Richard at the hospital, and come back to stay with us again for a couple weeks to help out while Richard will be back and forth to VGH all the time. If all goes well (ie. no fever), he hopefully won't have to go every day for two weeks straight like last time.
-On Tuesday, Richard will be getting his previously postponed Lumbar Puncture. At which point, they will be injecting some of the lovely chemo drugs into his spine to kill off any naughty cells that may be lingering in his brain stem, I believe. Yuck.
-I imagine he will start feeling crappy on Thursday or Thursday night. We'll see.
-To remind those of you who like the timeline of events...
Tuesday, September 8- Sunday, September 13th
- Six days in a row of getting Cytarabine.
Monday, September14th - Monday, September 21st or later
- Numbers diving down, transfusions, platelets, feeling horrible.
September 22nd or later - October 7th or so
- Getting better, numbers going up, then starting to feel better, then starting to taste things properly again.
October 8th or so
-The last round (hopefully) begins.

As for how Richard's doing right now:
He's feeling great. He's starting to lose more hair. I didn't realize that the hair comes out so late after the chemo. He's lost most of his eyelashes now, some leg hair, and his eyebrows are on their way out. I gave him the 'okay' to shave off what was barely left of his goatee and mustache a week or so ago, that I love so much. You can imagine how different he looks! Still cute as ever though and his face is soft as a baby's bottom. Although the goatee and mustache seem to be fighting their way back.

Some Update

Dexter
-He's signing 'carrot' now too. And, what? There was something he said or signed yesterday. Can't remember now. Sorry Dexy! I haven't been writing on the calendar. He's been full of hugs and kisses. He loves his phones. He loves riding the cards and the scooter. My Chunky D (I'm going to have to revise that term of endearment soon). What a guy!

AJ
-Taken a big interest in reading this week. Sounding out words like crazy and knows quite a few sight words now. He's been reading me some books. Not memorized, but using sight words he knows and sounding out others. He's quite proud of himself. He's been full of hugs and kisses more than usual too. My Cheeky Monkey. What a guy!