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Happy New Year!

By Margot | January 2, 2008

 We are back from New Mexico and I’m back from my progress report vacation.

The boys had a wonderful time in New Mexico.  It was parka and snow boots kind of cold and there was snow on the ground much to the boys’ delight. We went sledding up at the ski hill which was a big hit but we had to go into the lodge for a big hot chocolate break because of the cold.  We decided that it might be better for them to try skiing when it’s not so cold and Sam’s ankles are in better shape (Spring skiing maybe) so we don’t rent all the gear, get all heavy clothing on and buy the lift tickets only for the boys to take one run and head for the lodge.  Wimpy wimpy California family, I know.  Sam and Grandpa fed the horses together every morning while we were there and walked down the lane to get the paper and Sam, Andy and Charlie had a great time feeding apples carrots and sugar cubes to the little colt out in the field, Hale Bop.  Charlie woke up every morning saying “Dog” and went to look for Coco, the old lab.  He laid on her and followed her everywhere.  He laughed and laughed at Molly, the puppy who is full grown and full of steam, playing with the colt.  Neil took Sam and Andy bowling (yes, there is a bowling alley in Pojoaque, who would have thought) at the casino and swimming at the big municipal pool complete with water slides and whirlpools in Santa Fe. Grandpa took us all to the firehouse (he was the Pojoaque volunteer fireman of the year last year) and the boys ran from truck to truck pretending to drive and climbing all over everything.  Charlie kept saying “vrmm vrmm, jump!” when he wanted to get up into the trucks.  Grandpa showed the boys the “jaws of life,” his breathing mask when he goes into house fires, and the air truck that carries the air for the air tanks.  After a thorough tour we were talking with the paramedics on duty when a call came in,  “We have 420 (or whatever the number was), blah blah blah.”  “A 420, that’s a stabbing.”  Eeks.  Neil and I were hoping the boys didn’t catch that.  No such luck.  From Andrew, “A stabbing!”  “Who got stabbed?”  “What were they stabbed with?”  From Sam “Is there going to be a lot blood?  Is grandpa going to see blood?”  So I danced around the whole stabbing issue and tried to explain as vaguely as possible as the guys got into the truck and the ambulence and drove away.  When my Dad came back from the call he said, “I don’t know why they called that a stabbing.  Someone snagged their finger with a fish hook while moving some stuff.”  Great. 

My Dad and Stephanie and my mom pitched in for me to have an awesome day at the 10,000 Waves Spa.  I got a facial and a massage.  For those of you who don’t know, 10,000 Waves is very “Santa Fe”.   There are a lot of slow walking, self aware, low talking people there.  I got a great facial and then had some time before the massage so I went into the sauna.   As Neil said after I told him about it, I was like something out of Seinfeld in the sauna.  Not a lot of chit chat at 10,000 Waves.  Everyone is meditating.  So I’m thinking to myself.  Ok.  This is my relaxation time, I am a cancer mother, I have a lot of stress, I tend to be queen of denial, clear my mind.. Wow!  That lady is really into it, I wonder what she is thinking about?  Maybe it will help if I face my palms up towards the ceiling like she’s doing.  Okay… Whew it’s hot in here maybe I should go out and get myself a glass of water.”  Needless to say, not much mind clearing was done.   My massage guy was aggressive to put it nicely.   As he had his elbow in my back, he asked if I would like more or less pressure.  I croaked out “Less please” and he said, “Really?  Because I’ve never seen anyone with more knots in their back and neck than you have.  Let me just see if I can work some of this out. Do you get massage regularly?”  I guess all that denial has got to go somewhere.   It was a very relaxing day though. I think my face is still glowing from the facial.

I grew up in rural New Mexico so I’m used to the generally slower pace and people tying dead chickens around dog’s necks so they don’t eat any more chickens.  And though he relaxed some too and had a great time with the boys, Neil is very happy to be back in the land of high speed Internet connections, ESPN and seventy degree weather.   We had a pretty quiet New Year’s Eve since we had just gotten back.  I made Hoppin John for good luck yesterday and we had the Monacos over.

Okay, now that I’ve thoroughly frustrated all the cancer families reading this who are looking for medical information and have written this off as a worthless site,  Sam went in for a blood check today and a Zometa infusion.  However, we wanted to add some labs that weren’t on the list so we didn’t actually get the blood check or the zometa and are scheduled again for tomorrow.  Sam’s last LDH was 648 (normal).  His HVA and VMA have been ticking up a bit -went from 4. something to 6. something – still normal but not what we like to see – keep in mind that we freak out over every small change, so stay tuned for tomorrow’s results. We’d made a few pill changes and are going back to what we were on before things started ticking up.  We’re thinking that artemisinan may be the key as we’d taken a break from it.  Sam’s ankles are still completely screwed and I am going to get the prescription braces recommended by the ortho at Children’s if only to give something else a try. He is stoic as usual, I’ll see him limping after he’s been running and I say, “How are your ankles?”  “Good.” is what I get back but I can see that he’s hurting. We have basketball practice on Thursday and Friday this week and I don’t see how he’s going to run up and down the court. I’m hoping the new braces will help.  – Our first practice was sort of funny.  We are a very beginning team.  It’s going to be a challenging season and I think I’m going to have to assert more control over the whole gang as the listening skill is going to be as tough to teach as the concept of the pivot foot.  My brother instructed me make sure to practice and practice the lay up as it’s the most basic shot in basketball.  Problem is, our gang is not ready for the lay up yet. –

So, on the medical front, we are working on Sam’s ankles and going to be anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s VMA/HVA results.

More Soon.  Happy 2008.

Margot

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