Andy & Jessica

We arrived at Children’s Hospital at 10:45 a.m. for Jude’s 12:15 p.m. surgery.  They were running late, but, in the end, everything worked out according to my master plans (it took some convincing, as I suspected it would).  They were able to put him to sleep with gas instead of IV medicines and then poked him with the IV after he was already sleeping.  They also did a blood draw to test for allergies after he was sleeping.  The port removal went great.  They saved the port for me and I showed it to Jude.  He was pretty surprised that that big thing was in his chest for so long.  So glad to get that thing out!  After the port removal, Jude was wheeled into radiology for his first post-operative/radiation MRI.  It was a long day and we didn’t get back to see Jude until almost 4 p.m.   I then got a call from Jude’s oncologist who said that the scan looked good.  There is some “inflammation” visible around the old tumor bed area, but that is it.  I certainly wasn’t expecting any regrowth.  After all, if the cancer is going to come back, it shouldn’t be visible so soon.  She said that so far “he is free and clear.”  Jude had a hard time waiting to eat and a rough time when the IV was removed, but other than that, it was a fine day for him.

 

1.  Jude said while waiting without a full stomach until 12:45 p.m. to go into surgery: “Why do I never get to eat?” 

2.  Jude yelled (while crying) to the nurse who was trying to take out his IV, “You’re the meanest doctor ever!  I hate you!”  And then he said to me and Andy, “Can you punch her?”

3.  This quote has a bit of a background story and here it is — I’ve noticed I have a bad habit of warning the boys with a “Careful!” or “Watch out!” after they are already injured (maybe it is the lawyer in me trying to cover my own butt by having warned them, even if after the fact).  This morning, Asher and Jude were my little shadows while I was feverishly trying to get ready for the big day.  I opened a drawer in the bathroom and smacked Asher in the head with it and immediately after cried out, “Watch out, Asher!”  Thankfully, Asher wasn’t really hurt and didn’t even whimper.  But, Jude was on to me and said sternly, “No.  Watch out, Mom!”

Tomorrow Jude has surgery scheduled for 12:15 p.m. to remove his port (we we’ll have a not-so-fun morning trying to distract him from food/beverages). Afterwards, he has his first post-brain surgery/radiation MRI. I asked them to combine these 2 procedures, which I think will work out well since he has to be anesthetized for both of them and they needed to be done around the same time anyway. I am super excited to get that port out of his chest. It sticks out and he screams when I pick him up and accidentally touch it. If Jude is really cured of brain cancer, this will be his last surgery ever related to the brain cancer.  I’d love to be done with this.  But, that would almost seem too good to be true.

Jude doesn’t know it, but Andy was all set to disenroll Jude from his online government kindergarten after just 14 school days.  Mostly Andy’s reasoning was that the math and phonics curriculum is way too easy for Jude and the curriculum requires too much parental involvement (since it really is mostly paper based at this level rather than online).  Jude prefers technology-based learning (on a computer or iPad) since it keeps his interest for longer (and Andy prefers it too since he has 2 other boys to keep alive during the days).  Given that Andy was ready to quit, I spent the last 2 nights doing all of Jude’s lessons with him.  I found most of them to be worthwhile (e.g., we did an optional lesson where Jude had to run around and then we checked his pulse and he thought that was pretty cool).  We had another call with Jude’s “teacher” today and she had Jude do some reading and math for her.  Her impression was that he was at least at a 2nd grade level for those subjects so she’s going to see what she can do to get us some new curriculum.  Disaster averted…for now.

Levi and Asher are fun boys.  Tonight they were laughing up a storm when I sat Asher up on Levi’s shoulders and helped Levi run around with Asher up there.  They also enjoyed dancing to Veggie Tales music tonight.  Asher really gets into dancing and likes to imitate my really bad dance moves.  It’s super funny to watch.

A few weeks ago for school, Jude said he wanted to be an astronaut when he grows up.  Today, Jude said he wanted to be a police officer and I asked him to write that in a book about himself that he’s working on.  He instead didn’t listen to my instructions and wrote “police officer” on a separate sheet of paper.  When I asked him to copy it into the book, he changed his mind and said that when he grows up he wants to be a “dad.”  After all, it’s only 3 letters long and he knows how to spell it.  I liked his answer.

Jude’s feeling a little down that everybody’s name has more syllables than his. He said, “Why does everybody have more syllables than me. Can you give me 26 syllables?”

Jude and Levi had appointments to be tested for allergies this morning at 7:30 a.m. in downtown Minneapolis.  We ended up not going ahead with the testing on Jude since he was cowering in the corner, scared of getting scraped.  Levi, on the other hand, was naïve enough not to know what was coming so we went ahead with the testing on him.  Levi has a very minor cat allergy (1 out of 4) and the doctor did not recommend that Levi be medicated or that we get rid of our cats (to my disappointment).  Also, Levi possibly has a minor allergy to some outdoor mold, but again, not a concern.  For Jude, we’ve opted to do a blood test to check for any extreme allergies.  I arranged with Children’s Hospital that his blood will be drawn while he is sleeping during his surgery this Thursday to remove his port.  Although I arranged this, I do not expect that it will happen as planned.  I will have to advocate for Jude this Thursday to not only have him put to sleep with gas (instead of IV medicine), but I’ll also have to get the anesthesiologist to agree to do the blood draw after he is sleeping.   Since Jude is allergic to pokes while he is awake, I will have to convince them of my well-thought-out plan to avoid a serious reaction.

 

Last night, after Jude and I had prayed and I had told him a funny story, he told me that some “dumb people” might not believe in God and instead believe that “He is an altelegende.”

First, I set Jude straight that it’s not because we are smarter than others that we believe in God, have repented of our sins and are trusting in Jesus alone for salvation.  But rather, it’s because of God’s grace that we even saw the light.  This little chat was made easier since I had just listened to a sermon that mentioned that those who are saved should not be full of pride.  After all, we are saved not because of anything that we have done, but because of what He has done for us.  (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now am found.  Was blind but now I see.)

After straightening Jude out on that, I then quizzed him down on what an “altelegende” is.  A what?  Huh?  I didn’t understand.  I figured he couldn’t pronounce the word he was trying to use.  Then he described the word for me and it was clear that he was trying to say that some people would say that God is an old legend.  Then it clicked with me “Alte Legende” means “old legend” in German.  I suppose I should have thought of that sooner.  Jude sometimes uses German words/pronunciations.  For example, he calls “ninjas” “nin yas”, which is the German pronunciation.  And, I’ve learned not to bother correcting him on that one.

Jude on ear piercing:  “When I was four, I thought that girls already had holes in their ears when they were born.”