Great Weekend

Monday, June 4, 2012

Dillon has had a couple of really great days.  The weekend went well.  He even stayed over at his grandparents house one night with his brother and his cousin who is visiting from Montana.  We were all nervous....well not all of us.....Dillon was not nervous at all, just excited..... but all of the adults felt worried for some reason.  Then I reminded myself, "Shari, what could happen."  Logically I knew the answer was NOTHING....but my heart was feeling quite tense.  Big D, of course, had a great time.  Got in some basketball on TV, had a nice time playing a little with Miel and Luca, and when bedtime came he assured Nana that everything would be fine, because he was going to sleep in her bed with her.  Hahahaha....that was news to Grampy.  He was immediately and willingly displaced from his bed.  He slept on his new camping cot (which is where Dillon  was 'supposed' to sleep) that he got recently from REI.  Grampy joked that Dillon was allowing him to break in the cot himself before his next fishing trip.  Dillon slept fairly well. He woke up pretty early and declared that he was hungry.  Nana promptly headed to the kitchen and was the short-order chef for Sir Dillon, master of the food.  He returned home a short time later and was quite tired.  His usual statement these days is...."That was EXHAUSTING."

Last friday a reporter from the New Mexican called and did a short interview with him after a thorough interview with me and again....."That was EXHAUSTING."    Mental and emotional energy is no small thing around this house.

Today Dillon had a couple of visitors.  His buddy Finn came by. He brought a birthday gift that the 5th grade parents all pitching in for to get for Dillon.  It was a huge Harry Potter Lego....THANK YOU 5th GRADE!!!! Big D was nervous that it was be awkward, "What will we do, what will we talk about?"  Well those two boys fell right back into their usual mode and were in the garage throwing Pop-Its (little firecrackers that you throw on the ground) and laughing away.  Wheeeww, what a relief.  After Finn left D was so grateful that he had allowed the visit to happen and realized that it was not as hard or as weird as he had anticipated.  Therefore, later in the day when another friend, Miles, arrived with his dad in tow bearing the most amazing dinner, Dillon accepted the visit with more of an open heart and less worry about how things would turn out.

Finn presenting Dillon a gift from the 5th grade for his 11th birthday

The simple fact of the matter is that Dill Pickle has NEVER liked direct attention.  Even as a toddler, he hated people to even look at him.  He would actually bark at the cashiers in stores when they would comment on his big blue eyes, I mean he would BARK, like WOOF WOOF.  Funny to think of that now, but that same energy was palpable in the hospital when visitors would come....he just wanted to bark and bark and make them go away and stop looking at him and stop talking to him or about him and stop wishing him well and stop bringing him gifts...just LEAVE ME ALONE was written all over his face. 

Speaking of anticipation......
Tomorrow is chemo treatment #3 and the anxiety is running rampant around the house this evening.  We have  medication for that too....but getting the kid to swallow yet another thing is close to mission impossible.  I explained to him that if he is unwilling or unable to take all of his medications they will put him back into the hospital with meds via IV....after a bunch of whining and sobbing and frustration he got the darn medicine down.  Then, when Grampy showed up with a fresh baked cherry pie....so all was well again....at least for now.

Tomorrow is our first outpatient clinic-based chemo treatment.  Dillon is unable to articulate his feelings around this but his anxiety this evening speaks volumes to me.  Sean has taken the day off so we can both be present and learn the procedure and protocol for future visits.  Wish us luck!!!