Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Day 2008

Hi everyone!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! I hope that your Christmas was wonderful!

Mike and Katie actually slept in until 7 AM!! I couldn't believe it! They both loved their gifts! Katie's big gift was a Nintendo DS with a couple of games and Mike's big gift was a tricycle and a V-tech laptop of his very own! lol Of course the biggest gift of all for both of them was Daddy under the tree but they very quickly went to their toys after big hugs for him!

Unfortunately, Mike was feeling really bad on Christmas morning, I felt horrible for him. Honestly, I thought I was going to have to bring him to urgent care at Sloan yesterday. :( I can't wait until this induction phase is over so they can change one of the drugs. The side effects from it really kicked in this week. They have been coming slowly for a few weeks now, the speech, tremors and stuff but this week they all hit at once and they all hit on Christmas morning. :(

He got sick on me under the tree as he was opening his gifts but if that was the only thing that happened I wouldn't have been as worried or upset. He seemed so weak sometimes that he needed to hold onto something to stand up when he was sitting down, kneeling or playing on the the floor and the tremors in both his hands are coming way more frequently now. He was very lethargic, cranky and clingy all morning. He would play for a few minutes then walk (he was looking like he was having a hard time balancing himself as well) over to me and just have me pick him up and curl up on me crying because he didn't feel good. I swear, this chemo better be getting rid of these tumors.

After he threw up and took a nap he seemed a little better though. He ate and played. I got some cute pictures of him and Katie playing on his new 'piano' and singing in to the microphone while my sister M was playing Guitar Hero! LOL It was adorable! He really got into it, dancing and shaking his bootie. I felt so much better that he was acting better last night. He did ask to go to bed at 7:45 though. The poor guy was so exhausted after playing for only a little over an hour. He had a halfway decent night, he was only up 3 times and none of those times was for too long. He is still asleep so I am going to play it by ear this morning whether or not to bring him in to Sloan for bloodwork. Either way we go back on Tuesday for chemo.

On a side note, my girlfriend E in Florida sent up some gifts for us. It was so sweet of her to do that! She and her family are wonderful and we miss them so much! But, I digress, I wanted to tell you about one of the gifts. It was a book. The book is called "Henry and the White Wolf". It's about Henry the Hedgehog who is very sick. When his mom finds him laying in the woods she asks the Wise Owl what to do. He directs her to the wolf's den to see the white wolf. They are very afraid b/c the wolf's den is a scary place but they go anyway to try to help Henry to get well. The white wolf commends Henry for coming to her den even though he was very scared. She told him that he must be a very brave hedgehog and gives him a shiny black stone to hold when he is afraid and that stone will remind him of how brave he was to come into her den. She says that being brave and strong will help him to get better. The white wolf makes a potion for Henry to drink. She warns him that he will probably feel sick and his quills and fur will probably fall out but drinking this potion was the only thing that could make him better. Henry drank the potion and though it was disgusting but he held the stone and kept drinking. They had to stay near the wolf's den instead of going home and the wolf brought this potion to the hedgehog every day. Henry held that stone every time he had to drink it. He felt yucky and his quills and fur did fall out but after a while the wolf was able to send Henry and his mom home. Henry was able to go back to school and play with his friends and feel all better. The white wolf came to him one day when he was at home and told him how brave he was and that she was watching him for a few days and how he was then all better. I cried right there under the tree reading it. (Those of you that know me, know how little it took me to cry before... not forget about it! I cry at the drop of a hat!) What a wonderful book to try to help kids understand about chemo and how brave and strong they are for going through all of this. The book came with a shiny black stone and that stone is now in my diaper bag and will come with us everywhere we go... especially to the wolf's den to see the white wolf that will make Mike all better.

Anyway, I am off to try to get another few minutes of sleep before the kiddies wake up. I am hoping and praying that Mike is feeling better today and that we can wait until Tuesday, when we are scheduled for chemo, to go to Sloan! We are heading to my dad's today for Christmas with them... it should be a lot of fun! :)

I hope that all is well with you and that you all had a wonderful, blessed Christmas! Please keep those prayers and good thoughts coming!

Love to you all,

~~Chrissie

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