When we started this chemo last year, we needed to get blood work every week to check the function of his thyroid, liver, and kidneys, among other things. This time, we were able to push it back to ever two weeks. When I told Caden that he'd have his two-week appointment on January 27th, he got pretty nervous. "Mom, I can't! That's Finals week!" It wouldn't have been Finals week, had we not had to take SEVEN Snow Days this year; they would have been the week before! So I emailed Sue, asking if there was any way we could push the appointment back. She said yes, and bumped it to today.
So when I woke to more and more snow coming down in sheets and sheets, and then looked at the road conditions from Home to Seattle, I felt my heart start to burn-- it was "cautious" orange all the way to Issaquah, with patches of deep red interspersed, meaning at a stand still. That meant that 3 hours of our 3.5 hour journey would be stop and go, snow falling all around, conditions. I immediately sent out another email to Sue, telling her all that I could about why it might not be possible to go today. Here's the thing: her response was not a surprise--She needs to see Caden! We need to make sure that this chemo isn't wrecking his body! Just because we can't see anything wrong, that we don't have any concerns at this time (thankfully), doesn't mean that all is hunky dory. However, she said that if it was just too dangerous, that we could push it back to Tuesday, if we absolutely could not make it today. As I was telling Randy all that had transpired between us (all before 7:30am) he agreed that we just couldn't push it back again. This is our son's health on the line, we can't keep pushing things back. So my Mister grabbed all of his work supplies, made a few phone calls, and jumped in the driver's seat to take my place-- they're headed to Seattle, weather or no.
I have never had a desire to live in Seattle. After three years of their traffic, I really have no desire to live in Seattle, or its outlying vicinity. But, it's days like today that make me kind of wish we didn't live so far away from the one place that we need to be, our own grateful-we-have-it prison: Seattle Children's Hospital. Maybe it really is time to move to Mount Vernon, after all. It's only an hour and fifteen from the Hospital (traffic permitting), and it's in the same town as Ashlee. Win-Win. Too bad we love Richland so much.
I'm not sure which is worse: Anxiety having to drive in those conditions myself, or Anxiety knowing my men are doing it. Come back to me, Misters.
If I ever meet the groundhog that predicted six more weeks of winter, I may just kill the stupid creature. He is not my favorite animal right now. Or ever.
Update: They left at 8:19am, made it to the hospital at 1:00pm, let the hospital at 3:30, arrived home at 8:00pm. The roads were so bad, even 30 MPH felt fast. I am so grateful that Randy took my place. I'm also glad that they were able to make it to the appointment. His ANC (immune system) numbers were a little low. Nothing too concerning, Sue just isn't sure why. Hopefully it comes up by the 17th. Other than that, Caden is doing well.
It is speculated that since he hasn't had any side effects, and his hair has not started to turn white (she said it should have by now), that maybe the dose is too low. She thinks there is a chance it may never turn white. She's not quite sure, though; she's never had someone on this low of a dose before. If things look ok on the 17th, we may opt to try a higher dose, and see if he can tolerate it. February 17th will be a very telling day for us. As long as we don't see a tumor or heart damage, I'd be willing to try just about anything to keep the cancer at bay.
We had ourselves a good laugh when Darwin sent me this picture...
He gets me, my Father-In-Law. This could very well be my favorite creature on earth. Most likely.
My Misters are home tonight. All is right in my world.
I didn't even realize!! Dang snow....
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