Things Are Looking Up

Get ready, folks. I know I am. Paper Source (only the most amazing stationery/scrapbooking/crafts for the crafty store ever) has opened a new location here in Pennsylvania! Not just PA, but in Ardmore, about a half hour from where I live.

I will admit, I have a bit of a stationery obsession, I guess it goes hand in hand with my penchant for lovely looking things and my desire to make anything that is connected to me lovely looking as well. But the last time I was in a Paper Source was more than 3 years ago in Berkeley, CA. I purchased my favorite rubber stamp of all time, "small bear holding a heart". I have used him countless times to adorn everything from envelopes to CD labels and he is still going strong. But that doesn't mean I don't have room in my collection for "love goose" (how can you not want a stamp called love goose?) or "double happiness" (even if no one else knows what the Chinese characters mean). I am SO there just as soon as I can walk downstairs without getting dizzy!

No, no, things really are looking up. I don't want to speak too soon, but this is probably the best Day 5 I've had so far, with the help of my wonderful family and my lemon drops. I am able to keep my eyes open and hey, I'm in the mood for typing!

I realize I promised to detail Judah's renal scan and our ever-so-exciting trip to Sesame Place, so while I await my potentially tasty chicken parm's arrival, I will begin with Judah's journey at St. Christopher's Hospital. For those of you wondering why not CHOP, St. Chris does the most renal scans of any pediatric hospital in the area, and Judah's doctor sent us there for this procedure (for the second time - the first was done when baby J was just 6 weeks old).

Sunday night (eve of scan), I had a very hard time sleeping. I feared the worst, that Judah would have an allergic reaction to the sedation and not even be able to complete the procedure at all. I don't operate well under this kind of worry, especially when I am torn between knowing too much about what's going on inside of our bodies and (due to these latest medical findings in my own person) the need to know everything.

We told him very little about where he was going, simply saying it was going to be like the time the nurse put jelly on his belly (his yearly kidney and bladder ultrasounds have familiarized him with hospitals) and that the doctor just wanted to check on his insides to make sure everything was working properly. He didn't seem too disturbed by this, considering he's held my hand through the daily injections given to dissolve my blood clot last month (always remember to sing while your 3 year old is watching - it makes it burn less) and he's seen plenty of pictures of me smiling with IV lines hooking me up to the powerful medicine that is getting rid of the boo boo.

As it turned out, he did not cry at all through the entire procedure. They gave him some oral sedation, after which he did not seem to mind the 3 attempts needed to get an IV in him and he was so fantastic for the remainder (1 hour) of the process that the nurses lavished him with loads of stickers and love. He only cried after it was over when Dan gave him apple juice instead of orange and gosh darn it, he put the wrong DVD into the machine!

Waiting not so patiently at home, I cried a lot more, mostly after I found out that Dan had left his cell phone here. I will give him a little leeway here, seeing as how he had to wake Judah up extra early to get there by 7:30. Not altogether back in the swing of getting out the door with a timeframe in mind, what with no summer school this year...

Anyway, Judah (and I) survived and he was a bit goofy (as the nurses warned us he would be) for a while afterwards, but did not seem too much worse for the wear. We have an appointment on Sept. 7 to review the results of the scan with his urologist. Keep checking in for more on September in upcoming posts.

Now. The following day was my last day before Round 4, so we thought it would be the best time to take Judah (as a reward for all of his "suffering") to Sesame Place, where he's been pretending to go for months. I will give a rundown of our day in numbers:

15 - dollars spent on parking
150 - dollars spent on entrance to the park
1 - rides enjoyed by Mia (lazy river)
0 - rides enjoyed by Judah (cried all through lazy river) or Dan (took pictures of lazy river)
0 - times Judah used the potty (not counting the pee in the travel potty of our trunk before we left)
40 - minutes spent waiting in line for something
2 - ice creams purchased (for Dan and Judah)
1 - root beer float (for me)
1 - looooong parade (Judah atop Dan's shoulders, after correcting his misunderstanding that he wasn't actually in the parade)
1 - too loud monster rock concert
2 - sightings of Elmo
6 - minutes in the car before Judah fell asleep

Luckily, we get to go back (1 ticket = 2 day admission) and do it all over again before the end of the season! Can't wait.

Tomorrow, a visit to Dr. Henry at the Radnor office awaits for some jazzy fresh freezing spray (numbs the port site before accessing with a larger needle than I'd ever liked to have laid my eyes on), fluids and IV zofran to foil Day 7. I continue to manage the slow progression off of pukey P (prednisone) with chasers like chocolate milk (organic valley is ze best in the world) and neopolitan klondike bars (What would you doooo? Well, I would send my husband and father out to 4 grocery stores to find them.). Thank goodness at least those taste the way they're supposed to.

xxoo