It's been a week

It's been a week since we've posted. Largely due to being off work, out of school and Stephanie's mum having arrived last Thursday. She arrived just a day before I headed off for our annual golf trip (which got shelved last year).

As I said, Stephanie's mum arrived a week ago. They've been out and about while I was away with the "guys". Stephanie will have to fill you in on everything they've been up to in the last week.

I got away to Gulf Shores for 4 days with my buddies. It was the first time I'd been away from home or from Scott for more than one night, and that was a bit awkward. At times I'd be playing golf and out of the blue just think to myself "why the hell am I here?". I have a kid with cancer, and one feels very guilty doing something as normal as playing some golf, especially being away from him. So many things go wrong out of the blue with these children, one never knows when the call/email may come that sends you rushing back as quick as possible. I must say, it's a very uncomfortable feeling when you think "wow, if something happens, I have to take off and drive for 8 hours just to get there". Makes me wish our golf trip was close by. Maybe we'll do that next year. But I did have a good time, and do feel a little less like I may have a heart attack at any given moment. I'm just glad I have friends (4 of the 8 of us started 1st grade together) that I can do such a trip with, especially now. They're a group of guys which won't allow me to wallow in despair, else they'll smack me around a bit. We all know what each other has experienced through most of life, and we all know how to reel back in each other's sanity a bit.

On to Scott....today was clinic day, and Scott's counts came back good so all chemo was a "go". It was also spinal tap day. These treatments only happen a few times in his protocol, and he's knocked out for the process. I don't think he ever believed us about how quickly he goes to sleep, so he wanted that part of the procedure filmed. I've posted it at the bottom of this post. If you find it weird that we see humor in the process, well, having a kid with such a disease makes one a bit warped and we were a bit that way at the outset. He's feeling okay now, especially after eating pizza and taking some Tylenol/Codeine for his back. We're just awaiting the joy that is "steroid effect/vincristine pain" days. They can be a bundle of fun. We'll see how it goes, as we are trying some type of additive this time round. Glutamic acid I believe, which has helped some kids with vincristine pain. It's not another drug, just an additive found at any nutritional store. The docs said give it a go, so we'll see.

So without further ado, here's Scott being zonked out to have a large needle shoved in his spine.