Summer of 2005; First 4 months of "Geoffrey Updates"
11/29/05: Phillip, Geoff and I spent some time reading last night which was fun. Geoff learned how to scoot off the edge of the bed going backwards. When he reached the point where he knew he was about to slip, but his feet weren't quite to the floor he would close his eyes with a "Here goes..." expression. It was pretty funny. This morning was pretty crazy, I couldn't find my keys. I knew this for the past few days, I just kept borrowing Phillip's. Thankfully Grandma was there to meet us, and we had an extra car seat. All is well.
11/27/05: Geoff's doing the belly crawl pretty well now. We had a great holiday and it's hard to get back to "normal." It's so nice to have Phillip around and to hang out so much as a little trio. We're listening to a chineese language CD. It's pretty fun.
11/25/05: Geoff's on Prednisone for a few days as part of this week's treatment. It makes him have "roid rage" and now that he's older it's more evident. He's also really hungry. Poor kid. Today he pulled to standing from the floor using the edge of a sitting toy. He made some progress last night toward crawling too.
11/24/05: The treatment on Wednesday went alright. We had a strange anesthesiologist who after hearing that Geoff had had multiple treatments, went on to say some strange things... things I hope he doesn't say to parents regularly. Anyway, Thanksgiving was really nice. We went to Grandma's and had way too much food. Geoff sat in a high chair for the first time and played pretty contentedly for most of dinner with a roll and a sock.
11/22/05: Geoff's on his umpteenth set of eyelashes. He's got some great peach fuzz on his head too. The stragglers (original hair that never fell out) are pretty sparse but perhaps this new batch will take hold and flurish. :)
11/20/05: Geoff and Phillip make faces for the camera. We'll do clinic on Tuesday and an outpatient proceedure on Wednesday. Thursday we'll let Geoff try mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes galore. Happy Thanksgiving.
11/18/05: Geoff is able to crawl all the way across the bed, if there is a book or other forbidden item of interest. This involves a lot of face mashing, but he is progressing forward on his stomach, using his arms and legs... :) Another great day.
Phillip and Geoff pose for a picture by focusing on a piece of pizza just below the camera
Eliza and Geoff went on a walk with Heidi and Reise Michaels a few days ago and Geoff wore a baseball cap for the first time.
11/17/05: Wow, Thanksgiving is next week. Clinic went well. Eliza made pot pie sized pecan pies. Life is good.
11/16/05: Geoff had an elevated temperature, but it did not go above 100 and then it went away. We're just hanging at home. Good luck to folks trying out for the all county band.
Got 'em!
11/14/05: Another crazy Monday. I thought the car had been stolen this morning. The car wasn't in the parking lot at home or at school and I couldn't reach Phillip. The reason for all this was that Phillip had the car. I was more bummed about it, so I think all along I wasn't really worried. Geoff's teeth are pretty cute, but I haven't been able to get a good picture of them yet. Tune in next time, maybe as they get bigger I'll be able to get a good shot. Geoff's got a cute trick of bouncing on the bed. Yep Daddy taught him that one ;)
11/13/05: Geoff's top teeth are coming in together, thankfully, and he's pretty funny about using a wet cloth to gnaw on, so I don't have to worry about brushing them. Meg gave Geoff some cereal and he made a huge mess so he went straight into the bath. He's a cute one.
11/9/05: My sister Meg is in town and it's so fun to hang out. Geoff does not like taking his super purple flavored chemo, but he is otherwise pretty happy. He's especially cuddly and ticklish when he's tired, if he's not cranky.
Geoff pulled the label off a pillow. The road to crime starts so innocently!
11/7/05: What a morning! We were going to the clinic to get Geoff's hearing tested when... The car wouldn't start, so we got into grandma's car and headed off, a little late... We got to the parking garage and took the elevator to the ground floor, but the doors wouldn't open to let us out. So we rode back to the 3rd floor (2 was ground) and took the stairs (with Geoff's stroller) We still got there 5 minutes early, which was not the 20 minutes early we'd planned, but considering the delays, was pretty good. The hearing tests didn't really prove or disprove any hearing loss, so we go on. The plan is to get a test done while he sleeps next time we're in the hospital. It's good to always plan to be early, that way obstacles aren't so bad. Grandma did a great job of bearing the stress well. What a blessing.
11/5/05: Let's see, on Thursday we went to the clinic and started a new chemo drug. Geoff's doing great. The new chemo is an oral solution and it's super grape flavor. We hung out at Grandma's on Friday and here we are at Saturday and Geoff and Phillip are watching football. All is well in Porterville aka our neck of the woods.
11/2/05: Geoffrey is so funny in the morning. He'll wake up so happy around 8am and play happily as I get ready and eat breakfast. Around 9:30 he'll get fuss and go down by 10 for a nap. The first 1 1/2 hour is my favorite part of the day because he's so happy and talkative. When Phillip is home when Geoffrey wakes up he frequently says "How can I leave such a cute boy." Life is great.
11/1/05: Geoff got some blood today. He's pretty fussy though. I forget sometimes to take care of the normal baby problems, like teething.
10/31/05: Geoff and Phillip can always dress up as twins. Happy Halloween. We've got an appointment for Thursday, but things are really settling down. The recovery nurse (in surgury on friday) said "How many times has he had this done?" "10-12 times" I said. Then he said "No wonder you seem so calm about it." We're getting use to the routine, and Geoff hasn't had any complications so it's going pretty smoothly.
My visiting teacher brought this awesomely decadent treat, but the trick of it is... how can we resist eating it
10/28/05: We got in and out of the clinic yesterday without any problems. Today Geoff had a spinal and BMA as an outpatient. Grandma went with us and we didn't have any problems. Life is good. Geoff's doing great. We're looking forward to attending the Trunk'er Treat tomorrow. It's at 6:30-8:00pm at the 16th BLVD chapel. All are welcome.
10/26/05: I finally got around to uploading a few recent pictures. We've been giving Geoffrey a string bean at dinner time. Geoff is showing early potential for drawing on walls.
10/25/05: Happy 10 months to Geoffrey. We got a 4 day weekend because of the hurricane which, thanks to the cold front, didn't hit us. We had a great time hanging out with Phillip on Sunday and Monday. Sunday we tried to go to stake conference (church) and trade off with Geoffrey in the car (We had Grandma, Grandpa, GGrandma, Dad and Mom). But Geoff wasn't so happy and so we left after each of us hearing one talk.
Last night we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and then to GGrandma and GGrandpa's house. It's strange living around family where all of our houses could be termed "the Porter's". In Utah, we all had different last names, or at least the streets were sufficient nicknames for each families house (Green, Maple, Briar, Louise...) Geoffrey was very pleased with the PKY band for doing such a great job and sending home a very happy daddy after the district exhibition.
10/22/05: Eliza and Geoff went up to Lake City for a halloween party. Geoff went in his rocket ship. Phillip took the band to a competition in Lake City and they did great. It was a good day.
10/20/05: Eliza went out grocery shopping and got Geoff a tiny little pumpkin. It's about the size of his head and he really likes it..
10/19/05: Geoff has been pretty fussy lately, but no fevers... so great! We went out with grandma today and even visited grandma's house. Maybe we'll be going out more often. In Music Appreciation the students get a chance to share a song they like with the rest of the class. Today a student shared "Skin" (Sarabeth) by Rascal Flatts. Phillip had to go into his office and cry for a while before he could go on with class. (I bawled my eyes out, but I feel better now)
10/17/05: We had a long day at the clinic. Geoff needed platelets, and we waited on site for them, so we were there from 9:30-3:30. Long day. Phillip got home before us, just like the old days before Geoff got sick. Geoff's top teeth still haven't come out so he's fussy a lot. Last night he learned the art of splashing in the tub. He's super cute.
10/16/05: It's been a great Sunday. Phillip watched Geoffrey while Eliza went to choir and church. Great job dad. Geoff had the most fun he's ever had with a green bean while Eliza cooked a great dinner. What a great day. We'll go to the clinic tomorrow, Geoff's got an appointment and he's bruising a little bit, so he'll probably need platelets.
10/13/05: Geoff's counts are still good, but may drop over the weekend. Dr. Hunger was telling me that his counts where 108,000 and I thought he was talking about his ANC, which is usually between 400-2,500. So I was worried, but it turns out that he was talking about Geoff's platelett count, which 108,000 is on the low side of ok, but still ok. Grandma Porter came with us and we had a "party" with her, and Cendra (the nurse) and the Freemans (whose baby is further in the same protocall). Geoff's taking regular naps and learning to scoot himself backwards, on his stomach really good. He got stuck under the coffee table and had to be extracted.
10/11/05: We got to go on a walk yesterday which was great. We're staying at home today because it's been overcast. Life is great.
10/10/05: This was a great stay in that we had great roommates and Geoff's treatment went smoothly without complications. We got to go home right on schedule yesterday and will probably be home for about 2-3 weeks (!) with clinic visits. Sorry for the rant on admissions. The people who work there are really very pleasant and helpful, the system is just not set up to accomodate cancer patients. Two reasons: (1)There is no separation of sick/general public from healthy/imune compromised. (2)There is a pre-amission form that can speed up the paperwork for an admission if submited in advance, but cancer treatment is all count dependant, so we don't have a specific admission date until the day of admission. But life is good. Geoffrey's counts should be up for 4-5 days, so we'll be able to go out and see some friends.
10/08/05: We're in the same room, same side we were in last time. We've got a 10 yr old roommate who had some work done on his GI tract. We managed to get through admissions by waiting at home until the doctors really wanted us to get up to the hospital, and were willing to tell admissions to send us up. Even though we'd gone home to wait, and called a lot of people to try and expidite things, when we came ~2pm admissions said they didn't have any paperwork for us... I'm glad we went home. I hate to think we'd have spent 3-4 hours waiting for the paperwork in the admissions waiting room for nothing. I realized that I've chanelled all my negative energy and anxiety at the admissions process. I can be ok, even optomistic about everything else. There should be more effort made to separate sick from healthy or compromised people. Also, if there are no beds, they should tell us, so we can go home to wait. But we're ok. This is our last admission for a while, hopefully, and Geoff is really doing great.
10/07/05: Geoff and I are home for the moment, but we went to clinic this morning to check counts, and we're going to go to the hospital as soon as we can walk right to the room. This is the last treatment in his consolidation! Have I mentioned that since Geoff got the port, he has not had a fever, nor needed anti-biotics? Hurray. Feel free to email tubatwo@yahoo.com with comments or feedback. Pray that the rain will stay back for a while so Phillip's band doesn't have to march in the rain. It's the UF homecomming parade today.
10/06/05: Is it just me, or has the past year gone by remarkably fast? I can't believe that it was a year ago that I was stressing out over the ward Trunk'er Treat and getting ready to have a baby. Well, all is going well, remarkably so. Last night Phillip and I had a great time with Geoff who was being especially cute and loving for daddy. Phillip was playing games with his feet and Geoff was giggling up a storm. Each day, we feel overwhelming gratitude for this little angel we've been blessed with. Here's another bath photo to celebrate our recent upgrade to bathing in water status. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.
10/4/05: Geoff has been really cute and playful today. We got to go on a walk with Angela Monk, which was really nice. We're listening to Dar William's "Beauty of the Rain" which Phillip bought for us yesterday. I'd loaned it from the library when Geoff was only 2 months old, then returned it. It's amazing how much this album encompases a feeling of hope for the future and love for Geoffrey to me. It's like stepping back to a time where we were care free and had simple hopes for Geoff's life and our own. I recommend it very highly.
10/3/05: Geoffrey and I walked to the clinic today despite my better judgement telling me that we might get rained on. Hurray, we didn't get rained on and everything worked out great. Geoff always wants to take a nap just when we are "needing" to move him to the car or house... Today, he just took a nap at the clinic, and since I didn't have to move him out of the stroller, he slept all the way home. He's getting a little nimbus of brown hair all over his head where things are starting to grow again. Oh, and we didn't get rained on.
9/29/05: We're hanging at home today. We'll go to the clinic tomorrow and check counts. We may get off G-CSF, which we give by shot daily, and go in on Monday for chemo. Geoffrey is super cute and doing great, notice the teeth.
9/27/05: We went to clinic yesterday and they found that Geoff's hematocrit (red blood cell level) was low, so we went again today to get some blood. While Geoff slept I watched a terrible movie "The Prince and Me" with Julia Stilles. It's scary to see how much the hollywood wants us to be reckless and selfish. Anyway, we're happy and doing well. Phillip called while we were at clinic, which worried me a little, but it turned out he was home and wanted to let us know he was thinking of us. Good, good. To clear some confusion, Geoff is recieving "paliative care" not "hospice care." He's not terminally ill. In fact he's ridiculously cute and healthy.
9/25/05: Happy 9 Months to Geoff. He's really good at using his feet to hold a toy so he can play with it with his hands. "You hold, I'll punch" or something to that effect from Mulan. He also likes to scoot around the floor on his back. He may not crawl for a while, but he's very mobile.
9/23/05: We made it safely home by way of the marching band practice. It was fun to have a little "adventure" with Geoff and get a nice walk too.
9/22/05: We're planning to be done around 4pm Friday and we may walk over to PK and say hi to Phillip who has a home game and sectionals that will keep him runnin' wild. Life is great. Geoff is super cute today, though teething. His top teeth are ready to pop.
9/21/05: Our roommate is a little 3 year old with ALL like Geoff. For older kids the intense part is shorter, but the whole treatment is 2-3 years rather than about a year. A student nurse came in today and admitted to having a cold but figured she wouldn't wear a mask and try not to cough on us.... For the first time in a long time that made me mad. It's callous and rude. Getting the kids sick is wrong, but also, it means people need to waste more medical time and money to treat it... and if we have to go on anti-biotics again, then we have to disrupt our home routine to treat him. Arrrrrr....
9/20/05: Geoff's counts were high enough on Monday for us to get in for the next round of chemo. We'll be here until Friday for sure. We took Geoff around to the various destinations in his super stroller which we use now that he can pull the blanket off of his umbrella stroller.
9/18/05: Geoff is proud to be "with the band." This is his "look" how funny. Eliza got to go to choir today, then Phillip went to church. Happy Sabath.
9/16/05: Geoff's counts are still too low. We get to stay home for the weekend and try again on Monday. Life is so great. If we stay home it is great, if we proceed with treatment it's great, either way, Geoff is growing up and we're so blessed.
9/15/05: Tonight Geoff got his first bath in over 4 months. We had to stay home today, and Phillip had to stay late. If not for a visit from grandma, we may have gone crazy, we're not sure we didn't. We're shut in somethin' fierce.
9/14/05: At the suggestion of several people, we gave Geoff a chicken thigh bone to chew on. As you can see, Geoff thought that was as weird an idea as they come. We went to clinic and Geoff's plateletts are in the 400,000 range, great, but his ANC is too low to go in for treatment. We'll try again on Friday.
9/13/05: Geoff and Eliza have gotten to go on several nice walks, with friends since being home. We're going on the premise that if clinic and parking garages are a necessary evil, why not enjoy the outdoors with frineds. We ran into a lady from church while out and as she reached to touch Geoff, Eliza immediately reacted with "Don't touch." He's pretty cute, and tolerates a really nice long walk without complaint. It's great to get out, and hopefully not expose him to too many germs.
9/10/05: We are back home. Geoffrey likes being able to play with all of his favorite toys and in all of his favorite places again. (Eliza likes being home again too)
9/09/05: Geoff's doing really well. He's getting a new batch of eyelashes and they're gorgeous, 2mm long, but gorgeous. We've had some really nice roommates and everything is going well. With the infusaport, we'll be able to bathe Geoff and maybe go swimming!
9/07/05: We were admitted to have a new line put in Geoff and instead got an InfusaPort. This is the line we'd hoped to get when his line got infected, but the surgeon at the time said that he was too small. We'll stay a few days for Chemo.
9/05/05: Geoff pulled off the dressing of the PICC line, taking the line with it.... We'll see what happens now. Thank Goodness for Hospice care. A nurse came to the house and took the rest of the line out and put a pressure dressing on it and made sure it was ok for us to wait until the next day to take action.
9/04/05: We didn't do anything special, but Geoffrey took a nap :)
9/03/05: Just hanging out at home. (Gators won 32-14) Geoff is being cute, he tried out his high chair for the first time, we put it on the floor because we don't actually have any normal dining room chairs.
9/02/05: Great Grandma Lois came with us to the clinic today and we found that Geoff's platelett count isn't high enough now, and his ANC is borderline, but ok. So we'll be home for the long weekend!! Tomorrow is the first Gator game of the season and everyone knows it around here.
Summer of 2005; First 4 months of "Geoffrey Updates"