Riding for Roses

Rachel reminds me that I haven’t said enough about how life is going these days.

Spencer is in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is now over halfway through 38 months of chemotherapy. He finished Kindergarten last month and was advanced to first grade without any issues. His attendance record shows him absent slightly less than 10% of the year which mostly reflects going to doctor appointments and missing Thanksgiving week when his immune system took a vacation. He missed getting chicken pox despite likely being exposed.

Right now Spencer is at summer camp and he is having a ball. They have two week sessions and the last night of each session the kids (five and over) can attend a “camp out” (they sleep inside) at the camp. Activities at camp include horseback riding, swimming, art, music, hikes in the woods, fishing, and sports. When I asked if they could do Spencer’s bedtime pills at camp, I asked the wrong person and she said no. Spencer did not accept that and cleared it with the camp director. His first sleepover went great. Spencer self-regulated and stopped eating well over an hour before bedtime.

Today is that eighth week of his current maintenance cycle which means he had IV chemotherapy before camp. The doctor visit was largely uneventful though Spencer seems to be having some bronchospasms. They are only really happening at night or when the doctor pushes on his chest while Spencer exhales as hard as he can, so we are hoping a little albuterol will clear it up.

His chemotherapy dosages slowly creep up as he grows. Each visit they weight, and sometimes measure, him. They use those numbers to calculate an estimate of his body surface area and look up the target dosage of his chemotherapy in a table. Today, the dosage for his steroids and mercaptopurine went up.

Jacob is a toddler. He is a somewhat easier child to raise than Spencer has been. Favorite activities this week include

• running across the room yelling “my Daddy” when I enter the door at daycare
• pretending to serve me pizza and coffee, which apparently both arrive via the front door
• “go to [It’s a] Grind” – the coffee shop where I often buy coffee and sometimes work
• “go HEB” – grocery shopping
• any activity that will result in concrete truck or school bus sightings

He climbs into (and out of) his crib with great excitement. Climbing in requires a somersault over the bars. I do not want to know what he does to get out. He refuses to do it when I am watching. The other night he had a little difficulty in bed. At about 9:30 I heard the boys’ bedroom door close and Jacob was in the hall wearing just a diaper. He said “need help” when he saw me. Apparently he opened his sippy cup and spilled water all over. Naturally, he took off his wet clothes and stripped the crib to clean up. I probably would not have found out until morning except he dropped and lost his pacifier by the bookcase. He must have climbed to look for it and took all of the books off the first shelf of the bookcase before he came out to ask for help. Amazingly, Spencer slept through the entire exercise including me putting the toddler, bookshelf, and bed back in order.

Rachel is away this week on a business trip and I have just started a half-time project, so life is a little more short on free time than usual.