The UNC game just let out and since they choked...er, lost, there are too many grumpy drivers on the road for us to leave right now. Spades, it is!

Buddy, being Buddy, is determined to WIN! Judith, being Judith, is trying not to smack him for being hyper competitive (or hyper AND competitive, according to Grandma). Is the traffic clear yet???

Chase's last day of this cycle of chemo was a bit rough. The barf bucket stayed close, but clean. Fingers crossed. He had some visitors this afternoon and when I get home, I'll put up a picture of a local sportscaster trying to steal a bite of Chase's dinner. And Grandma and her Sharpie!

And tomorrow, it's bye, bye UNC - well, for 2 weeks anyway.

A yellow flag has just been thrown on Buddy for showboating. We're googling the penalty for unsportsmanlike behavior in Spades.

Still traffic out there...

I've messed with the formatting to keep pics off the main page, so those folks with dial up won't have to deal with waiting for everything to load. Just click on the link at the bottom of the one you want to see and it'll load just that one blog entry. Hope this isn't too confusing!

Besides, I wasn't sure Chase really wanted this pic on the web, but here it is!


Adam's changing the dressing on his port. The yellow "butterfly" is the needle that goes into the port directly below the skin. The dressing's there to protect the stitches which will be out soon enough.

Since Grandma's back from Vegas and Buddy took the day off to see Chase through the rest of chemo, I ended up staying home today, messing with the blog and catching up on laundry, shopping, and vacuuming (ewww). I don't miss wandering around in the parking deck looking for my car, but oddly enough, I miss Chase!

Just a quickie - I just realized that comments can't be accessed at the hospital (it's blocked!), so I've created an email address and added it to his profile. No guarantees he'll respond to emails (c'mon, he's a teenager), but I'll make sure someone in the family reads the emails to him.

That's it for this entry, no matter what it says below...

You're in luck! Tonight's blog was going to be a treatise on the use of mannitol to disrupt the blood brain barrier and increase the efficacy of chemotheraputic agents in the treatment of brain tumors, but...that sentence pretty much exhausted my knowledge and PubMed isn't coughing up anything useful tonight either. All I know is that it seems to work.

Chemo in the morning, nap, then pool or air hockey in the teen center in the afternoon/evening. Y'all come by - there's room for more! He's getting a bit of cabin fever and visitors really help him feel less cut off from school and such. A friend (sorry, I forgot his name) loaned him a portable DVD player to hook up to the TV in his room and he's borrowed some movies to watch too. So thus far chemo's mainly been boring, with a dash of nausea on the side, although I think this afternoon it was really just hunger. Once he ate, he was performing calisthenics on the bed! He had to call the nurse in to unkink his IV line...

Dr. Gold said he's doing better than 99.9% of his patients on these drugs, and they're pushing the anti-nausea meds to try to keep it that way. Chase had hoped to be released on Saturday after his last infusion, but they're encouraging him to stay one more night, keep the fluids flowing, and keep his perfect record of never losing a meal. Sorry, Chase!

Chase, his (everpresent) pole, and some friends in the teen center.

He figures the hair's coming out anyway, so he had Nikki buzz it off. Here he's checking out the movies and games he can buy on iTunes with the gift certificate a 4th grade class kindly sent him. No buying until you send that thank you note, Chase!

Shhh! While he sleeps through chemo, we're going to add to his measly two moles and Sharpie some constellations on his head. Think he'll notice?

Same stuff, different day

They had a bit of a hold up on Chase's daily pre-chemo kidney test (okay, the "pee test"), so he entertained us a bit by playing his guitar.

I tried to take some video to put up on YouTube for y'all, but he didn't cooperate. If you ever need a time waster, that's the place to go...maybe we can add something later when Chase feels more willing. As if.

About noon, he finally passed the test and got chemo started. Since he hadn't slept well the night before, they gave him a little something extra and he got a nice nap in. Unfortunately, it seems he's gotten his first side effect, loss of appetite. I wish I could trade with him, he needs to eat way more than I do.

While he took his nap, Judith and I went to A Southern Season for a bit of shopping and a yummy lunch. We both agree that their chicken salad is very good, and their chocolate department is droolworthy. Christmas will be here soon - just sayin'.

I promised Mom I wouldn't blog about her unrepentant lunch time phone call from Vegas, so I'll just let her fill you in on her favorite slot machine "Cops and Doughnuts" later. She was excused to fly out there since the trip was planned quite a while ago. Her friends were coming all the way from Australia to meet her - can't miss that!

On our way back from lunch I was boring Judith with a discussion of sugar and how it's hygroscopic and that's why I thought the crispy Boston Baked Beans were actually quite fresh and not stale like she thought, and she said "you always cease to amaze me". I just had to laugh. She'e either very cleverly insulting me, or...she's Judith.

Came back to find Chase watching TV so we kicked him out of bed (the old "you've got two feet, use 'em!") to go take a walk. Maybe that will help his appetite!

Pictionary in the Teen Center with Karena.

Some friends dropped by - with a DVD player and some DVDs! Hey, next time bring something other than baseball videos, okay? What about me?
Why's that guy have a rubber glove on? He scares me.

Anyone up for pictures?

Sorry to all of you on dial up... Buddy and Jacob came this afternoon, so I bailed early and came home to post some pics from today.

Chase's first infusion. He had a dose of an anti-nausea drug first that made him a little glassy eyed, but at least he didn't get sick!

A couple hours later some friends came by for a visit to the teen center. It's pretty well equiped and not crowded at all, but it's only open a couple hours in the afternoon and a couple more in the evening.
Er, yes, Chase lost. Next time he'll win, though, for sure.

(I'll get that check in the mail tomorrow, Griffin)

Judith's so proud of her Mr. Potato Head. She's just a wee bit nutty...too many fries at Wendy's!

Blog from the play center!

Oops, I mean the "Teen Center". Currently, Griffin is beating him soundly at Stratego. Not nice taking advantage of a kid on chemo... Then again, Chase has had his moments too. This morning when his nurse was flushing his port, just about to start the chemo, he startled and "fainted". We laughed, but I made Judith smack him. The nurse bided her time then "oops" squirted some chemo drugs (only saline) on him.

So the pediatric floor is cool ("and the nurses are all so young", Chase pipes up). Wendy's still has the best food here. Chemo's over for the day and Chase is still fine, waiting for his hair to fall out so he can join the merrymakers on Franklin street for Halloween.

Judith's playing with Mr. Potato Head. I think she's been here too long!

In by 11, out by...

His surgery was scheduled for 12:30, but it was 3ish before he was put out briefly for the portacath. The surgery went great, and he didn't get sick afterward either. He was HUNGRY! Next time he knows to whine when they say "no food after midnight" when something's scheduled so late.

He's in a room on the Pediatric floor, and all the nurses are fawning over him, of course. There were 4 hanging out earlier today when Dr. Gold came by to shoot the sh...breeze. He's rather...colorful for a pediatric oncologist. Anyway, after Chase got settled in his room we walked down to Wendy's for dinner, then the cafeteria for dessert, then Karena came and had to buy him a little snack, then he asked Judith to go out to the car for more food! Did I mention he was HUNGRY? Judith tried to put him off till morning, but when he said "It's okay, Mom, I only have a brain tumor", she and I took our guilt trip out to the car to get him his special cereal. Laying it on a little thick apparently works.

He's been doing a pretty good job in the food department lately, putting about 15 pounds (now 17?) back on after a couple weeks of nausea and headaches, followed by surgery and a week or so in the hospital. The Lexington BBQ festival probably had something to do with a pound or two of that, ya think?

Tonight, rest, tomorrow about 10AM they'll start hanging the Chemo.