Saturday, July 21, 2007

7/21 - Birthday Preparations and such

Tomorrow (Sunday) is Jake's birthday party. The party is at 11:00 at Gym Kidz in North Miami Beach (www.gymkidzmiami.com)
It's just off West Dixie Highway and 155th. If you are coming from I-95, take the 163rd street exit and go east to West Dixie Highway (just after the Honda dealership). Go south (i.e., turn right) on West Dixie to 155th or so and turn east (left). The facility is inside a warehouse complex. There are usually balloons outside, but I presume there will also be a bunch of parent-mobiles outside the entrance. Just look for the SUV convention.

Jake's doing OK. He continues to have unpredictable bouts of nausea each day, but once those pass he's fine. His cousins are in town for the week so there's been lots to do. They all went to Wanadoo City, which was OK. It would have been more fun, but we'd forgotten that girls and boys like to do different activities there, and they could never agree on a joint activity.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

7/11 - Dangerous chemicals


Monday was our 12th wedding anniversary. I got Jen a massage and a "champagne and roses manicure and pedicure" at the Biltmore Spa. To make it really special, I scheduled the treatments for dialysis time (1:30 to 6:00) this afternoon, and I'm covering the hospital duty. So far, so good. With the wireless internet, I can respond to work emails and bid on Ebay Yu Gi Oh cards at the same time. Hopefully, I can keep those tasks separate. I'd hate to accidentally declare a mystic Yu Gi Oh attack on a client.

He's in pretty good shape. They are experimenting with different bandage dressings to try to alleviate the skin pain. He's got a copper deficiency, so he needs to drink hot cocoa. On the other hand, the mini marshmallows have no therapudic effect.

Monday, July 9, 2007

7/9 Update - Let's (Birthday) Party!!


We're planning his make-up birthday party for Sunday, July 22, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at Gym Kidz in North Miami Beach. It's a reverse-invitation process. If you're within the sound of my voice (figuratively speaking), and you'd like to go, let us know at larrysilv@gmail.com so we can get a headcount. We had considered replicating my 40th birthday party (bounce house, cookout, etc.) However, the last few days of oppressive heat and humidity and intermittent rain have caused us to pick an indoor party.

Jake's doing OK. He feels crummy a few times a day, but I can usually distract him by changing the subject to something that excites him. Either that or he vomits. Dialysis is now 2:00p.m. M/W/F, so that lets Jake and Mommy sleep later. They don't get home from dialysis until 7:00 or later, so that makes family dinner later. That means he goes to sleep much later, and the cycle continues. If I get home early, I can knock of some Tour de France footage off the Tivo before it piles up. (My fearless prediction for the Tour is Alexandre Vinokourov, the pride of Kazakhstan)

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Happy Fourth of July

We're hanging out in the coolest place in Hollywood - the pediatric ambulatory wing at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. The usual dialysis kids are all here. You would think that you could skip a day now and then (kind of like going two days without dialysis on the weekends) but that apparently screws up the biological schedule. I'm skeptical that the body adjusts to a seven day schedule (i.e., the body gets used to weekends), but the docs have more experience than me.

In order to switch from morning 8:00a.m. sessions to 2:00pm sessions, they make you go through an 11:00a.m. session on one of the intervening days so that the body gets used to the time change. Today is our 11:00a.m. day, and then he'll be doing 2:00pm M/W/F for the foreseeable future.

He's been a little off lately, with bouts of nausea and fleeting bouts of grumpiness. The grumpiness is somewhat attributable to spoiledness (it occurs for frequently when we say no to a request), but there's enough chemical stuff going on in his little body that he may not be able to avoid it. He roll with it, and he quickly forgets that he was mad and forgets 9or pretends to forget) whatever he said.

Daddy did the Independence Day Duathlon, and did a personal best. I finally broke 1 hour (59.01) for the 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and 2 mile run. If the 14 people who finished ahead of me in my age group all test positive for drugs, I qualify for the World Championships.