Unusual strokes of luck

Not much justification for lack of blog updates other than the fact that I've been playing around a lot all week. Fortunately, The Boy has had good fortune in the white blood cell department, better than we could have expected, so we've been able to play.

Platelets tanked, so he got a transfusion yesterday. They were at 9. That's ridiculous.

Hemoglobin has held steady; he has gotten "tanked up" at the end of the last few chemo stays and that has been good enough to hold him over.

So let's see...I visited the local WIC office on Tuesday. Yes, I did. Hey, only one person in our family has any kind of job, and substitute teachers just don't make that much money. The WIC people don't agree with what we feed Meatball, or at least the program doesn't, because they only give baby food to children under 1. They are also rather surprised to see me "still" breastfeeding and are glad to see it.

Let me go on record saying that baby food is gross. Except baby bananas--I like them myself for some reason. But even the concept of baby food grosses me out. Meatball has two teeth, but he has really hard gums, and he chews just fine. Why would I play games with him trying to feed him cream of whatever? Oh, and most of the Gerber "Graduates" stuff is world class crap. Read the ingredients and check the sugar content. Yet people get so excited about their kids being able to eat "Puffs." No thanks.

Anyhow, The Boy gets some nice staples, including fresh veggies. I would for myself as well, if my doctor's office in NJ would fax over the appropriate info so that my doctor here can fill out the form. They give more food to exclusively breastfeeding mothers. Up to a year, anyway. Meatball will likely nurse longer than that, but he is such a great eater that he'll likely be nursing less after a year.

Highlight of the WIC appointment: I was told that The Boy's hemoglobin level was low, around 10.5 (there is a place for the doctor to fill that out), and was asked if I was concerned, and what did I want to do about it. It took every ounce of restraint that I had in me not to laugh in her face. Remember the whole thing about cancer treatment causing blood issues? That's kinda how it works. And 10.5 is about as good as it gets for The Boy while he is on treatment. So while iron supplements or leafy greens might be nice, they don't do for The Boy what a blood transfusion does, when he is on cancer treatment. Brilliant, brilliant people, over at the WIC office.

Let's see what else...lots of playtime with boys this week! Most days I had little errands to do that prevented me from being able to do any work, so with the remaining time, we played. Visited the playground, too!

I'm so glad to see The Boy enjoying himself at the playground!

We made friends at the playground this week--Daddy and The Boy made friends with a mom and boy, and then we all made friend with another daddy and boy a bit older than Meatball. We also had been on Sunday to meet friends that we already knew.

I had a concert this evening. There was an issue in one of the other parts, and it wasn't corrected over the course of rehearsals. I figured I'd be subtle and drop the conductor a note about it. He addressed the issue and DIMED ME OUT by thanking me! I hope that the whole orchestra doesn't think I'm a tattletale.

The concert went well, though. It was a shortened concert version of Carmen. I've played it before, the whole thing, and it's just such a great opera. In particular, the composer uses the entire orchestra REALLY well. I told the performer who played Don José that no one does crazy like tenors.

I did have a Tubby the Tuba experience, in that there are many times where beautiful melodies are being played, and intricate music, and we're just standing there going "oom pah" all the time. That isn't entirely true but, particularly with us having both cello and bass parts in front of us, it is easy to get jealous.

Tomorrow: clean out the cars (maybe take them to the car wash), do laundry. Play with boys.