Saturday, October 18, 2008

Hair cuts, cancer and melt downs

Today was an interesting day. We went to Costco and spent an unbelievable amount of money on stuff we really needed - food, paper towels, soup, things like that, then Cooper took an early but lovely nap. After that, he ate lunch and we went off to get his hair cut. We went to my hairdresser, and he sat like a grown up big boy in the chair and let her cut his hair with no freak outs or anything. This is probably his 5th haircut, and he has always done really well. He is a massive flirt, and made Nikki the hairdresser melt.

After that we went to visit our old neighbors back where I used to live before Bob and I bought the house we are in now. The guys, Dave and Jim, are this great couple. They were living there when I moved there in 1998 with my now ex-husband. Dave grew up in the house they live in. While they are a couple of gay guys, they defy the stereotype - they are not fashionable, they are not hip and happening. They are practically two old women. Dave is in his 60s and Jim is in his late 50s I believe. They are made of gold. I love these guys like family, and Dave is fighting cancer. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and had been doing really well with the chemo, but recently he developed some bacterial infections, and he ended up in the hospital on and off for the last three weeks. I haven't been able to see him because he was off limits to anyone who might have some disease, and since I have a kid in daycare, who has a perpetual runny nose (Cooper, not me), I didn't want to be the person responsible for introducing some additional infection. But he has been home and is doing well, so we went to see him and Jim today. He seems to be doing very well, at least in spirit if not physically. As it turns out, the cancer has somehow found its way into his spinal fluid and brain. The treatments that he has been receiving won't touch that. It won't cross the blood/brain barrier. So he will need a separate treatment, and that sounds HORRIBLE. It goes in through the skull, into the brain directly. Ugh.

But as I said, his spirit is really strong, and he is handling this well. It was good to see them both and hang out for a bit. I hope and pray for the best for him.

After we got home, Cooper proceeded to melt down. He was interested in eating some dinner, but then caught site of his hammer, which had gotten hidden under some magazines on the table, and that was it. Not interested in dinner, only in hammering. Then we thought we would try eating at the dining room table, while he sat in his chair, eating like a family. Ha. Double HA. Total meltdown. Like I have never seen this kid do. Crying, gasping for air. Tears, gnashing of teeth, rolling of the eyes, showing of the claws...wait, that is Where the Wild Things Are. But it was close. I tried staring into his yellow eyes without blinking once, but that didn't work. He didn't make me king of all wild things, he just kept crying.

Eventually we managed to sit quietly in the living room, read through some books, discussing the page with the trucks in Busy Busy Town extensively. Then tubby time came, and bed. Now the mama is writing her blog and drinking a glass of wine. Phew.

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