Ah, home sweet home! It was so nice to sleep in our own beds last night. We didn’t have much luck finding a private jet, so we did the thing we dreaded doing and booked a commercial flight. Hey, it was that or not come home for another week or two until after Eli recovered from his upcoming neutropenia. For those of you that can be flexible on what time of day you need to fly, I highly recommend trying to name your own price for a flight on priceline.com , you can save hundreds of dollars over the cheapest tickets you can find anywhere online. Due to the weather in NYC, our first flight was cancelled, but we were rebooked on a flight an hour and a half later and flew threw Atlanta instead of Cincinnati. The biggest surprise of the trip was running into Eli’s pediatrician from Ames in the Atlanta airport! It was nice to be able to catch him up on what was going on and what needed to be done on Monday.
We thought we’d have problems with security since Eli was going to be sent home on a backpack full of fluid (hooked up to an electronic pump) to last him through the weekend that was connected to him. However, once they figured out how to handle the situation, everyone was very nice and we didn’t have a problem. The guy didn’t even care to read the note from the Doctor. The best part was when they took our shoes to check them out. Eli asked me why they had to do that and I told him it was so they could make sure we didn’t have anything bad in our shoes. He paused for a minute and said, “But dad, I’m wearing sandals, they can see in my shoes, why did I have to take them off?” Leave it to Eli. I don’t typically fly Delta, but they were exceptionally helpful and great with Eli. One of the pilots gave him an airplane pin which he takes to bed with him and another pilot gave him an entire box of cookies.
So Eli was doing better on Friday and was throwing up less. He was even able to take some medicine by mouth and spent a lot more time in the playroom than the days before. By 2pm he was done with his chemo, but his urine was testing positive for blood. They kept taking samples and eventually by 6pm his urine had cleared up and we were free to go (with the biggest, fattest IV bag I’ve ever seen). We had to check into Urgent Care on Saturday morning to have his electrolytes checked, but they knew we were coming, so we were in an out in about an hour and a half. All was well and we got the go ahead to go home. Thankfully, Eli has been eating and drinking better, which is good because he hasn’t been on a nutrition bag for almost a week and is only getting two thirds of the hydration he needs from his IV.
We spent Sunday getting back into our routines and spending some time outside in the beautiful weather. Eli loved the freedom of hauling his backpack in his Gator and not having to stay within 3 feet of a parent. I didn’t mind not having to haul the thing either! We even got in some baseball.
Well, for my final food review, I actually have something for you to AVOID. 🙂 We ordered lunch on Saturday from Dallas BBQ and had it delivered to the Ronald McDonald House. The chicken we ordered was really good, as was the homemade corn bread. We actually got a whole Rotisserie chicken for only $6.99, which was a really good deal. The item to avoid on the menu, however, reads “Our famous loaf of onion rings – $4.99”. I would describe it as a Chinese takeout box full of terribly soggy onion rings. Two bites and it was in the trash. In all fairness, it didn’t say what it was famous for!