SLEEPY MONDAY

The weather was dreary today… 55 degrees, but grey, windy and rainy. I miss the Florida Sunshine! Overall the weather just made me so sleepy today, and Caleb too.

Since today is Monday, his port had to be accessed this morning (needle put in). I put on the numbing cream about 20-30 minutes before our appointment so the area would be numb when they stick him. Funny story… since I’m still pretty new at this… You are supposed to use gloves to handle the cream because otherwise your fingers will go numb. Then you are supposed to put a clear patch over the area to hold the cream in place. So I put the cream on his port, opened the clear patch, but since I had medical gloves on and I am not used to wearing medical gloves, the sticky part of the patch got all stuck to the glove and I messed it all up. So there Caleb was just holding his shirt up patiently waiting for me to figure out how to do this right. Luckily the nice lady that works in the Radiology waiting room was able to get me another patch and we had a good laugh about it!!!

I am so proud of how Caleb handled the needle stick this morning. He didn’t even flinch when they put it in and the nurse said if all her patients were as good as Caleb she would have an awesome Monday. I’m so proud of him for being still and brave even when he is afraid! So with that, they put him to sleep for his 9th radiation treatment. 4 more full brain and spine treatments to go!

Caleb woke up his usual drowsy self, and one thing is for sure he does NOT like the cold weather. I bring him his jacket and extra blankets now because I know how cold he is when he first wakes up. The recovery room also has warm blankets for the kids so that helps a lot as well! But even so Caleb was not happy going out into the cold to head home, and he rested in his warm cozy bed for a large part of the afternoon.

We had some semblance of a normal evening tonight! We sat down together for family dinner with no electronics at the table, just like we used to do at home. Tyler’s school has a very rigorous curriculum for pre-k, and Caleb isn’t in school right now so it’s important for us to focus on some learning activities. I want to get in the habit of carving out some time each day for this so we did some learning activities before bed.

All in all it was a good day, but the dreary weather and missing home definitely got to me a little today. I was already feeling sort of down when I was driving home with Tyler from his school and he saw a lady walking her dog. He said I miss Kasey (our old dog), I want her to come back. So I lost it and I said “me too”, and had a good cry. I want everything to go back to the way it was but all we can do is move forward, and I’m proud of us for establishing some new routines as a family tonight.