Rain!

It seems I finally skipped a day of blogging. I thought about it a couple of times yesterday, but then I was too tired.

On Thursday, on my way out the door for Matthew's Chemo appointment, I got a phone call reminding me to send in the papers for my FMLA leave from work. I had totally forgotten! Today is the day they're due, and they said the due date could not be extended. So, Friday I dug through all my papers till I found them, and then yesterday I took them up to the hospital so a doctor could fill them out and fax them.

That drive up to the hospital was scary! It was raining really hard. I couldn't see anything, and I was hydroplaning all over the place. There were waterfalls coming down the hills onto the roads, and huge puddles to drive through. I was a shaking mess by the time I got there. But I dropped off my papers, and they said they'd get to them yesterday, so at least my job is safe!

I was in the hospital for 20 minutes, and by the time I got back out, the rain had stopped. You couldn't even tell that there had just barely been all that flooding. It was so weird!

So, since I was out so early in the morning, I decided to run some errands. The rain came and went all day, but the worst of it was over. I got home around noon, and soon after I got home, Matthew started to really have some belly pain. They've given him prescription pain medicine, and they said to use it for any kind of pain. I can't give him Tylenol or Ibuprofen, because they can mask a fever. A fever is a sign of infection, which Matthew doesn't have the ability to fight right now, so we have to really watch for fevers. If he gets one, we have to go back to the hospital and, from what I can gather, they will administer IV antibiotics until the fevers are gone for a specific amount of time. It pretty much means you're guaranteed another week long stay at the lovely Hotel Primary's. Anyway, his prescription says to give him 1-2 ML for pain. I always give him 1, and then an hour later if he's still hurting, I give him another 1. I usually don't have to give him the second dose, but the couple of times I've had to, it worked perfectly. Yesterday, he only had .5 ML left. I gave that to him, but it wasn't enough, and his pain was getting worse. So I called the clinic.

Turns out pain medicine can't be called into my local pharmacy, because it's a controlled substance. You have to either get a paper copy of the prescription, or pick it up at the hospital's pharmacy. Sooooo... I got to drive back up to Primary's.

It felt like such an unproductive day! But on the bright side, I got Matthew's medicine, and this time, they gave us plenty. Last time, it was only a few doses.

One really great thing about yesterday, though, was a visit from Matthew's old teacher at the daycare. We really loved Matthew's daycare, and one of the hardest things about all of this is that he can't be with his friends anymore. He's so well loved there. It's always felt like we were doing something really special for him by bringing him there. He's so much younger than his brother and sisters, and he doesn't really get much at home to help with his social skills, so daycare was a great way to help him learn to share and play with other kids his age. Plus, they do so much teaching there. He's already reading short words, like stop. I'll just plug the daycare here - it's Small World in West Valley. They're fab-u-lous!

Anyway, he can't go to daycare anymore. So, some of the teachers came to see us at the hospital, and then one of them found me on Facebook. They all keep updated through her. Now, she's following the blog, too. (Hi Caroline!) She came out to visit yesterday, and brought Matthew a picture her class had made for him. We love that stuff, and it really is the highlight of his day.

I'll leave you with something that I thought was so sweet, it made me cry. Caroline told me that the wall where they display the artwork at the school is covered with a message for Matthew. It says they miss him, and all the kids have put up a hand print on there. Then, it has the blog address. His whole school is thinking of him every day, and they've dedicated a wall to him. I think it's the sweetest thing! Caroline said all the kids ask about him all the time.

In Primary, too, the kids miss him. I've been told that they always include him in the prayers. And these kids are doing it spontaneously. The cute little Sunbeams keep asking about him. One of his friends from Sunbeams is helping his mom to make us dinner on Thursday, because it's a Chemo day. She and her brother are so excited to help their mom to make something special for Matthew.

I figured out really quickly how much all the adults in our lives have been supportive, but it took me until yesterday to really realize that the children are helping us a lot, too. Even the tiniest of them.

It amazes me how much 3 year olds understand about love.