We are ready!

Tomorrow is our last swim meet of the season - Championships!

Here's Logan's line up for the morning (we write their info on the kid's arm or hand so the swimmers, and parents, can easily keep track!). It'll be his first time competing in Back (up until now he's only swam Free and Breast) but he wanted to give it a try, so who am I to stop him?!?

We're looking forward to a fun day (with an Awards dinner celebration at night - whee!). :)

Something's missing....

Soooo, yeah.

We received these swim team "statuettes" today.... 😂😂😂

Just a taaaaad creepy! 😱

Back to camp!

Callum got the all clear to head back to summer camp today! I may be just as excited as he is. ;-)

Kids & Art

We've been done with Callum's lab appointment for about an hour - yet we are still here, hanging out!

He has charmed all the women running the Kids & Art table they set up in the waiting room, making a bunch of little puppet monsters with them. :)

Discharged!

Amazingly, and in record time, we were discharged today! 🙌🏼

We lucked out with a pretty lenient doctor on rounds this week, who could tell Callum was feeling much better, and who knew I'd keep a close eye on him and bring him back quick if he got any worse. He also really liked the idea that we only live 10 minutes from the hospital - that seemed to be a big factor in him allowing us to go home. 😊

So, we are now back home and settling in. Yay!! Callum is still neutropenic (his counts actually only increased a smidge today), but I'm looking forward to us all sleeping in our own beds tonight. ✌🏼️

(The last two pics were taken this morning, as we waited to get discharged. He has been begging the nurses all weekend to bring him some wooden toys to paint - I explained the guys who have all the toys and art don't work on the weekends and would be able to bring him something on Monday morning. So, first thing this morning, he asked to see our Child Life Specialist (Nick), so that he could have a few toys to paint.... It was nice seeing him excited about something other than his iPad for a change!) 😊

On the mend

Without even looking at the name tag, the nurses know this tray is Callum's. Let's just say this isn't the first one today, and he tends to order multiples of the same thing. 😂😂😂

He's feeling TONS better today and his numbers are on the up! Yay!! 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼

Up and down

Callum's mood (and well being) has been up and down most of the day. When the Tylenol kicks in, he's in a pretty good mood - eating and drinking and watching movies or playing games. But when the Tylenol starts to wear off and the fever returns, he feels miserable....

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Another hospital admission

Last night, out of the blue (and I truly mean out of the blue - no other symptoms presented all week or all day yesterday, Callum spiked a fever. He was miserable and sooooo so very tired. :(

After getting permission from the on-call doc, I have him some Tylenol at about 3am and then we headed to the ER. They ran the usual blood work and unfortunately, when his counts came back, we found he was neutropenic. Which meant we couldn't go home. :(

So, we hung out in the ER for awhile while they gave him antibiotics and fluids and waited for a room to be assigned. We finally got to our room around 7am, ran through more vitals, exams, talking to the doctors, etc before Callum (and I) finally passed out at 8am.

(The first pic is from the ER, when the Tylenol had finally kicked in and he was starting to feel a little better. The second pic was a couple of hours later in the ER where he was trying to sleep off the fever that had come back, and we were waiting for our room. The third pic was from about an hour ago, which I snapped really quickly before heading outside to say hi to Jon and Logan.)

He's still sleeping now, but I can tell he's feeling much better. He's not moaning or squirming restlessly around in bed but actually sleeping soundly. Every hour or so the nurse stops in to check his vitals and his fever has come down to the 99* range, so at least that's a good sign. But now that we're here, we have the dreadful wait of count recovery which, as we all know, can take FOOOOOORRRRREEEEEVVVVEEEER.

So here I lay, catching up on Facebook and watching my son sleep. And cursing myself for being so bold as to think we wouldn't have to deal with another hospital stay before the end of treatment.

It's like the universe is sending me a big F-YOU and telling me "Don't you dare get too comfortable." :/

Grandpa Ito!

I'm not quite sure why they keep insisting on giving me these one-eyed stink eyes for the camera, but regardless, they were thrilled to have a mid week visit from Grandpa Ito today. :)

And this is why I can't get much done today

This time it was because a new game I loaded on his iPad kept crashing.

But really. It could be any number of reasons a day that I get this reaction. 😕

Lego Robotics Camp

Logan had a great time showing us his little robot/car he made in camp today. Each kid is also building a video game, which they'll get to bring home (on CD) at the end of the week. He's excited to have us play it. :)

Steroids FTW! (Again)

Callum lasted a half day at camp today before I got a call to come pick him up. He says a kid in his group had a sandwich for lunch and that reminded him he needed to go to Subway. 😜

Today's PSA

It's a lot easier teaching a kid how to cook when he's on steroids. ;-)

Kids Night Out

The rec center was having a Kids Night Out event tonight - the kids get to swim, run around and play, eat pizza and when it gets dark, watch a movie out on the lawn. The boys heard about it during camp today and begged me to add them to the list.

It felt a little silly for me to be dropping them off for a few more hours, after they'd already been hanging out all day for camp. But, they really wanted to so I signed them up.

We reserved a couple chairs on the lawn, right in front (taped signs to the chairs and left their towels on them), before we left after camp pick up. I'm so glad we did! When we got back for check in later this evening, it was a bit chaotic as all other kids were claiming chairs and moving spots around! :)

I think one of the counselors said they were expecting 60 kids tonight. Hoooo boy I'm glad I didn't stick around. ;-)

I pick them up in about an hour - hopefully they had a blast!

Last Chemo IV Push

Callum finished his last Chemo IV push today.  WOW!!  He's been doing so much better - yesterday he started to turn the corner and today he even felt well enough to attend summer camp.  So, when Dr. Lacayo came to check in with us, we decided yeah, it was ok to proceed with his last vincristine.  We're just going to cross our fingers and toes we don't have another week of torture (but we very well may).  :/

What an amazing milestone to log under his belt!!  We are all so very proud of how far Callum has come.  We will still continue his home chemotherapy for two more months, but we're definitely on the home stretch now!! Woohoo!

Above was my favorite pic of the two rascals - after a very trying afternoon (Callum was dealing with emotional "hangriness", demanding I march down to the cafeteria for a hot dog at once, instead of talking to those pesky doctors.... Logan was just being a pissy little pre-teen and testing my every nerve).

Here's some others, to show you the progression of our (very frustrating for Mama) picture taken session (it took me about 35 shots before I got a final good one!!).

Man.  These boys.

Swim Meet Catchup

Last Thursday (the 7th) and last night (the 12th), Logan competed in two more swim meets.  Given everything else I've been juggling with Callum, I haven't had a chance to mention it - but I really do want to - because Logan has been doing so great!

But before I get to the meat of Logan's meets, I'll post a couple cute pics of Logan's cheering squad:

For last Thursday's meet, Logan had decided he'd enter into TWO events this time (for his first meet, he stuck with freestyle only).  He competed in freestyle again, and this time, by his choice (!!) breaststroke!  I was surprised by this, since I assumed he would have gone with backstroke as his second choice, but I definitely didn't question it - I was just so happy to see he was not only up for going back to another meet, but adding another event onto his list too!  :)

The gaggle of 7-8 yr old boys I was helping corral, to get them off to the right event/heats/lanes!

He really struggled to finish his breaststroke event, but he stuck it out and made it!  I was beaming with pride - I know how hard it is for him to get out there and do the races on his own like this - but it's such a fabulous experience and I'm hoping it'll continue to make him stronger (in mind and body).

Hanging out, chatting with a teammate, before his breaststroke event

During his freestyle event, he was leading for the first half, but gassed out for the second half and ended up placing fourth.  I mentioned that to him - and he was surprised and amazed that he was in the lead for half of the heat.

Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected, just before his freestyle race

And then it hit him, "So, you mean, it's my own fault, for not getting 1st place?"  I smiled, looked at him and said, "Pretty much."  Which may sound harsh, but I like that the wheels are churning and he's understanding that he has what it takes to win, and with just a little more effort, he can win.

Frankly, it's what I like about swimming anyway.  You can't really point fingers or play the blame game - it's just you racing a clock.  That's it.

All done! End of his races on Thursday - he was one exhausted dude

Fast forward to last night's meet - where, sadly, Callum was feeling like total crap.  It was really hot out which wasn't helping things and because he was feeling so crummy, he wasn't up for running around and playing with his friends like he normally does.  It was going to be a pretty long evening for him - but I didn't feel like I could leave.  I really wanted to support Logan and I had also committed to volunteering during the meet (awhile back when the season started, of course).

Luckily, my Dad was with us, so just before the meet began, he took Callum home.  It was a bummer for my Dad, since he drove up to see Logan race, but he was also up to help me out with Callum, and we both could tell it would have been awful had we kept him there.

Last night - me, lining up the 7-8 yr old boys for another event!

Logan chose to compete in freestyle and breaststroke again - and he did amazing!  Before the meet, I had talked to him about how he could easily shave off several seconds of his time, and become much more competitive in his heat, if he didn't take so long on his side breaths.  I showed him how he can find a rhythm with his arms and should just breathe in between those beats, but not slow his arms/rhythm down.

So, when it was time for him to swim, I reminded him about what we had discussed and practiced at home - and lo and behold, it was a neck and neck race between him and two other guys.  He ended up placing third but MAN, it was so exciting because it was so damn close.  He shaved off a little over 4 seconds from his best time and was literally beaten out by 0.13 seconds from second place.

So, the chat we had today was about that last minute reach and stretching to the end wall as fast as he possibly can, since that can make all the difference when placing.  ;-)

Zoom in - you'll see how tight the race was!
Logan is in Lane 4 (middle of the pic, second swimmer from the left).

His breaststroke event was also incredible.  Before this event (and the freestyle event), I prepped him with his competitors' times vs. his own best, so he knew what he was going up against (which he really liked).

He had only ever competed breast once before and his time was really slow - everyone else in his heat was a good 35-45 seconds faster.  So, for this event, our game plan was to improve on his arms, to try and pull through the water faster (in last week's event, toward the end of his race, he was hardly even using his arms anymore he was so tired).

His goal was to get a better time than last week - and boy did he ever!  He still placed last in his heat, but he sliced off an entire 14.1 seconds from his last time.  Incredible!  I couldn't have been more proud - and he was really pleased with his performance as well.

All in all, an awesome meet (both times!).  We have one more meet left in the season (next week) before the championships meet (which I'm sure he won't be participating in, but I think we'll still try to go to, to cheer on the team).

The summer is flying by - but we sure are enjoying it!  :)

End of last night's meet - another exhausted, but very proud and happy little guy!