Tomorrow, Tomorrow, He Comes Home, Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day! Tony will have stayed in the hospital for exactly 5 weeks. He is more than ready to come home. 

Originally, they said we had to wait until his platelet count reached 50 to take his pic line out. But this morning, Dr. Reid gave the nurse permission to take it out anyway. (His platelet count was at 39. So his awesome nurse Maurey, took it out and applied pressure on his arm for a full 10 min to make sure the bleeding stopped. That, my friends, is a dedicated nurse. She also was super awesome and put the pic line in a bag so that we can keep it. Tony was pretty excited about that. 

Tony has been coughing quite a bit. They think it might be his body trying to get rid of all the extra dead skin that is in his throat from all of the sores. It is making him pretty miserable though. It makes him nauseous when he starts coughing too hard. He is has been plagued by headaches. But these are all part of the recovery, and none of it is too bad to not send him home. 

He still has to take a million pills when he comes home. The prograph (that keeps his new immune system suppressed) is now in pill form, and it lowers his magnesium level, so he also has to take magnesium by pill.   

Good Quotes

We really liked several of the quotes that were on the poster that Tony's work made for him, so we would like to share them with all of you:

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

by Elizabeth Kubler Ros

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.""

by Mary Anne Radmacher

Attitude = difference between ordeal and adventure

We may end up framing some of these. Pretty good, eh?

No Longer Assimilated into the Borg

As of today, Tony is free from his IV (at all times except when he needs magnesium which is every couple of days). They took him off of the IV prograph, and he is now taking a pill. He will be on the prograph (immune suppressant) for at least 6 months. They have also been able to stop the extreme antibiotics through his IV because his counts are sufficiently high. His release date from the hospital is tentatively set for Monday, the 7th. We are super excited. They aren't able to pull the pic line out yet because his platelets are still to low, but they will hopefully come up in the next few days so that he won't have to have it poking out of his arm anymore. He was in good spirits today and is looking forward to coming home soon. He almost feels like he is back to semi-normal (cancer normal, not a year ago normal). His boss from Ernst & Young visited him today and brought a wicked sweet poster from his fellow employees. He loved it! I will have to take a picture of it. He sure misses his buddies down at the E&Y. 

Silly Faces and Dancing

If you want to see Jack dancing and playing his maraca click the clip below:

http://youtu.be/Qm7IPB23uHY

http://youtu.be/eYSZvg_jcfM

Jack loves to dance. He especially loves his lion, but he will dance when we sing or any of his toys sing. But his best dancing is done when I am doing zumba. He is definitely musically inclined. 

The other thing our little Jack man has been doing is pulling a silly face every time he sees a camera flash. He has been doing this for a few weeks now and I think it is hilarious!

This is the first picture I took, so it was before he saw the flash. Every picture after that looks just like these:

That's my rock star. He just cracks me up every day. I am a huge Jack fan. I should get his autograph now before he gets super famous. 

DC with Grandma

We went to see the trains again in DC but this time we got to bring Grandma Roring. Here is Jack looking at the mermaid and the dragon house. This was his 3rd time seeing the trains and he is fascinated every time. He loves it.

Here is Jack and Grandma in front of the Capitol building made of plant materials.

This was how Jack looked as we walked around the Tidal Basin and saw the FDR monument and the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument. Super bundled up from the nippy air. We had a good time and were extremely lucky with parking spots. 

2013

First of all, I would like to apologize to the number 13. I am sorry for anything bad I have ever said about you. Please forgive me and be lucky for us. 

We had sparkling peach/grape juice for our midnight celebration. We played phase 10 and watched a movie to bring us into the new year. 

The awesome nurse brought us hats and took a picture for us. Here's to 2013! A year without cancer!

In an update, the doctors are predicting that Tony will come home this next Monday! Hooray!

Matchy Matchy

We were so excited to take Jack to church in his new thrift store sunday outfit. Doesn't he look like such a stud!

And then when we got to church, Walden had the exact same outfit on. Totally unplanned and totally awesome. I mean, what are the chances of both of them in bright blue? Pretty sweet, right? Best friends already. They even dress the same. They probably called each other....