08/27/11 Iron Man

Still not good.  Oh wait, you want to hear about Adam.  Ok, humor me for a minute.  Rachel has dance class, so we’re getting ready with the tights and the leotard. I can’t find her shoes, she won’t eat her oatmeal, and BLAM-O I snapped, “Rachel SIT DOWN!” She looks up with her big, beautiful, blue doe eyes filling up with tears and says in her innocent and precious little voice, “mommy, you scare me.” Oh my word! I AM a horrible person!  Maybe Uncle Jason’s weekend camp of fun will be a good idea afterall.  At least she will be playing all weekend and having fun and not have to be stuck with Monster Mom!  So, I check myself, give her some love and we are off to practice “this is my right foot, this is my right foot, tap, tap, tap,” and "princess leaps over the pond" (those are technical dance terms for a 3 year old) J

So, back to Adam. He is in good spirits.  Color is back in his cheeks.  Aunt Karina brought him a remote control helicopter that he is shooting daddy and me with little helicopter pellets.  He is a perfectly strong 4 year old trooper.  He is cooperative when nurses come check his vitals (around the clock, every 4 hours), and not complaining about his new little button.  The button is the metaport.  He wasn’t happy when I told him about it.  I thought he would want to be like “Iron Man” and have a cool button like a superhero.  He doesn’t want to be Iron Man, see Iron Man, or read Iron Man now.  But he definitely does not want any more “pokes.” The poor kid had 5 pokes in the first 2 days of being here.  I can’t imagine doing that every day.  The first 3 were actually ok.  He wasn’t fazed by the pain, but he wasn’t happy with the nurse.  Who could blame him?  The 4^th needed a little more convincing, and the 5^th was WWIII.   The metaport will serve as an access for IV and blood draws whenever we are at the hospital or clinic for the next three years (as long as he doesn’t grow too much, it doesn’t need to be replaced).  He will eventually need weekly blood draws at Qwest (phlebotomist in Castro Valley), but well get to that bridge when we get there.

We also started Beads of Hope.  For every procedure, poke, medicine, therapy, etc (including just by being brave) Adam gets a bead that is color coordinated to each procedure.  For example, an IV is a black bead and a blood transfusion is a red bead.  We started his necklace today and he already has 14 beads!  One is extra special because he got to choose it and it is one of a kind.  It is his first courage bead.  He picked a blue, sparkly bead.