Brr! Yeech! Ouch!

Brr! It's cold in that house! Ok, not too bad really. Julie, always the handywoman, pulled the sheet metal out of the fireplace, hammered it flat, and replaced it. That seems to have sealed it enough that our gas fireplace is now working. The house is comfortable again. But I dread that gas bill!

Yeech! It's gonna cost $1350 plus tax to get a new furnace. Wait. Not yeech! That's a great deal! Plus a $250 rebate from the gas company that will go straight to the credit card company. Methinks there may still be a tax benefit as well, I'll have to do some research. But yeah, $1350 is a lot better than 4800, 3800, 2800, and 2450. Thank my father for doing the digging around and speaking the HVAC language.

Ouch! Andy broke a tooth! Those of you who know Joey know that he broke his two front teeth a couple years ago. Today Andy broke one of his front teeth. Not quite as bad as Joey's. And it didn't really seem to bother him. He broke it on the metal crib in the hospital room. Go figure. Anyway, they gave him Tylenol and a doc will look at it tomorrow.

I'm assuming they'll send us to the dentist. I hope it goes like Emma's last doctor's appointment. They rocked. (Yeah, I know you're all reading this, but I'm gonna brag on you anyway). Emma was playing with the dogs. One of the mutts accidentally scratched her face. It was bad enough that we needed a nurse and/or doctor to look at it. No problems. This was cool though. What's the number one concern here? Yep! The waiting room! Can't have Emma getting sick from the sick kids there and giving it to Andy....

They told Julie to call when she got of the elevators. So she did. They took her in the back door, straight to a room that hadn't been used all day, and got her out the back door. She never saw the waiting room or any of the sick kids for that matter. Great job Joey / Emma / Andy's doctor's office! (I'll let you throw out your own advertisement, I'm not naming names)

So anyway, hopefully we'll have a similar experience at the dentist's office. Actually, now that I think about it, they may be able to just look at it and say it can wait until his counts come back up.

So far so good with Christmas. We'll see how his counts are. As of right now we're being told that we don't have as much freedom as we originally thought, but as long as nobody's sick, we can do the family stuff. It's all going to depend on his counts.

So I was thinking. I have an opportunity to do some good for the world. I can save a small portion of a landfill. Rather than tossing the old furnace, I have a more eco-friendly idea. We'll feed it to Loogie! You remember, the dog that will eat anything? Not chew, but eat! Yeah! So within a couple of weeks, he should have the whole thing consumed. He will then "pass it" and return it to the earth in a more natural way. Thoughts?

Back to the boy, Andy should be going home tomorrow (Tuesday). Hopefully in the morning. He's not hooked up to his IV tonight, so it's been a fun night. That really helps his mood, not being hooked to an IV.

Every time someone leaves the house, Emma says they went to Neendy's hospital, Neendy's doctor. It's actually pretty sad if you think about it. And Joey is now telling people that Andy has no more chemo, that he's done with chemo and therefore is almost done being sick. That, too, is sad. What four-year-old is even supposed to know the word "chemo"?

Wanna talk sad? I counted 5 new families in the last 7 days. Yeah. 5. I think one is terminal. Or maybe just the parents are extremely emotional. Wasn't a pretty site though. Then again, I remember a big group of family, friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. who were pretty torn up and full of tears when they found out about a little baby with a hepatoblastoma. And we all know how that one turned out! (or is turning out anyway)

If you've ever brought your kid to the Glennon ER, you know what a pain in the butt it can be during peak hours, especially if it's not a huge deal. Tell ya what, though. They know how to treat their chemo kids. Every time we've had to go to the ER, I tell the receptionist that he's Andy Kelley and they immediately get him back to a triage room. You can imagine how busy the place was last Saturday with the snow! I figured, "ok, they'll stick us in a room and this will take hours."

Nope.

Despite the huge, crowded ER waiting room, they took no chances with the little guy. He was immediately seen not only by a nurse, but by an ER doctor. His port was accessed, they sucked his blood, and started his antibiotic, all in 1/4 the time it would normally take just to get registered! Not only that, the nurses really knew how to handle him, his port, the fact that he's a chemo baby, etc. This was the first time we've come in during peak hours like that. I was extremely impressed!

Speaking of having his blood sucked, all blood cultures are still negative. And we should find out his new AFP numbers very soon. Good and good.

Hmm... That's it for the random neurons firing for one night. Nite all!