on my way to where the air is sweet

Almost a week and no posting from me. You'd think that nothing new was going on...

Well, you're almost right.

I mentioned that The Boy was in the hospital, so I'll give a quick rundown of how that went:

Tuesday late night to the ER which led to a wee-small-hours admission. No eating at all on Wednesday, limited eating on Thursday as well. His choice, not anyone elses, although he still nursed when it was offered. I suppose that since he's such a tzaddik, he fasted for Yom Kippur. The Boy got a blood transfusion one of the nights...I want to say Wednesday night because I stayed with him. He also, unfortunately, violently vomited milk in the middle of the night. Then, 15 minutes later, he violently vomited almost nothing, which was probably more uncomfortable. Keeping in mind that he has still had almost nothing to eat in a few days but has been pumped full of IV fluids to the point where he looks bloated.

Some other points of interest:

The Boy developed some swelling in his testicles. They were pretty sure that it was fluid retention, but they did an ultrasound anyway along with an abdominal ultrasound and a chest x-ray. Surprisingly, The Boy was perfectly still for the ultrasounds. He was less thrilled about the x-ray but the cool thing about it was how clearly I could see the port in there. But then, if you remember the ass-pen episode of Scrubs...

The CT scan taken on Tuesday of last week revealed that the possible lymph node swelling may, in fact, be an "accessory" spleen. Either that it's there and has always been, or that it's growing. It doesn't do anything other than show up on scans and make us think that there's another tumor growing. It still could be another tumor but being that The Boy is on chemo, it would have to be one heck of a nasty tumor to withstand those chemicals and grow in spite of them. Let's all hope that it is not, in fact, a nasty tumor. Come on everyone...hope with me here.

Blood transfusions are AWESOME. My mother said it and it's true--it's like getting recharged.

There's pretty much no such thing as "urgent" in the hospital unless someone stops breathing.

BYOB--bring your own bed.

I made it my business to learn the weight of multiple pocket cloth diaper/insert combinations, in grams. The scale is accurate to the nearest .005, as in, it rounds in one direction or the other to get to a measurement ending in 5 or zero. If you care---the BG 2.0 with insert weighs 125 grams. The HuggaBuns size medium with BG insert weighs 115 grams. The Swaddlebees pocket size medium with HuggaBuns hemp prefold insert weighs 115 grams as well. Convenient because the snap diapers weigh the same. And the Happy Heinys Baseball Diaper with HuggaBuns hemp doubler weighs 100 grams. w00t.

For the next hospital stay, we will order all medications for 1/2 hour before we want them. This way, we can feed The Boy his "applesauce" containing his BP medication while it's actually dinnertime instead of waiting until he has no interest in food and bats the spoon away.

So that pretty much covers the hospital stay. My parents were here and they were wonderful. Especially my mom, who voluntarily spent two nights in the hospital with The Boy, having a pajama party. The Boy was very good, letting her sleep, and she loaded up on those baby snuggles. I should also mention that my dad snores, while my son does not.

I am pleased to report that The Boy is eating again. His current MO seems to be taking a long time to assess the food and its suitability before digging in. He also really seems to like ketchup. And tomato sauce, but that isn't so new. I'm going to stock up on the Heinz Organic ketchup because it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it.

By the way, corn growers association, I've read your ads. I think they're full of crap. HFCS is so far removed from corn and shouldn't even have "corn" in its name. Corn syrup is fine. Fructose is also fine. Corn syrup that is specifically processed to have extra sugar? Not fine. Not to mention that plenty of people are sensitive to corn and have a hard time digesting it. It doesn't belong in my ketchup, my tomato sauce, my bread, or my cereal. Perhaps it belongs in ice cream, soda, or other dessert items. But if it's in everything, there is no "moderation." Rant over.

Today's appointment: a few blood draws and an exam, nothing major. Some problems with the port, but they got it going. If it weren't for the fact that The Boy was in the hospital recently, this appointment would have just been for a finger-stick blood test and that would be it. As it was, they needed more blood for a few more labs, meaning that they had to get it from the port.

Numbers were pretty good. Platelets were a little bit low but not too much, and, more importantly, the white count was good. Now (surprise) we wait. The Boy's oncologist expects to hear from the surgeon tomorrow who will have us come down...eventually.

In addition to resecting the remaining tumor, the doctor will also look at the left side to see what that other thing is. I vote spleen.