Mr. Routine

Brian loves his routine and having things done just so. One of his current nighttime routines is popcorn for "dessert" and watching Cars 2. He has even taken to watching it in Spanish.

Here are our sweet boys with their popcorn watching the bonus features on the Cars 2 DVD. They could watch Toy Story Hawaiian Vacation and Tow Mater Car Toons all night long, over and over even though they are just five minutes each.  

Chemo 11-17-11

This week was a chemo week. Wednesday is bloodwork and Thursday is chemo.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was the first time we went to the lab and had to wait an hour to be seen. It was chaotic. The four kids that went before Brian SCREAMED their heads off! So, the little boy that went right before Brian was told by his mother that he may have a toy if he didn't scream. That prompted Brian to turn to me and say, "May I have a toy if I don't scream and cry?"

:) We've learned to stop buying the entire lego sets because really our boys just love the mini figs and creating their own house, car, castle, etc. So Brian's reward for being brave now adays is one of the mini fig packages for $2.50. He doesn't get them every time we go to a doctors appointment but whenever we have surgery, X-rays, etc. It's always exciting to see who the mini fig will be.

Thursday was chemo. It was quick, in and out. Brian is doing well. Here is a picture of the kids infront of Nemours.

Update with Pictures

Fred is back to work after six weeks at home on short term disability. Of the past eleven years and I think he has called in sick once maybe twice so I wasn't too sure how he would do being out for six weeks. I was mighty proud of him because while he did answer the phone and field some work from the house, he did a great job following doctors orders for recuperating.

Here are some images of Fred's back now, after his spinal fusion.

                                  Pretty nifty, eh! (Quite pricey too!)

Brian had another IVIG this week. His counts were so low he needed the immunity boost.

He asked me who was going to watch the kids while we were in the hospital and I told him Ms. Shelley. MAKE ME CRY MY EYES OUT...Brian looked at me sadly and said, "you mean they get to play at Griffin's?! I wish I wasn't the one that always had to go to chemo!"

Yes, rip my heart out and make me sad for him. So, that would be why we purchased Cars 2 secretly the night before and surprised him when he got to the hospital. Wouldn't you know it the oncology wing was full so we were in the regular peds unit and what a disappointment. It's like the difference between staying at the Motel 8 verses the Plaza. Obviously the Pediatric Oncology wing is the much nicer one. So, when we got to our room we discovered the DVD player was broken. Brian ended up watching Cars 2 on Fred's laptop.

Brian is still afraid of the bed so here was his set up for the day.

Fred still had to work so after we got in and settled he left and went back to work. Brian was absolutely silent and when I tried to talk to him he would just say "I don't want to talk right now."
In between his Cars 2 viewings he played with the iPad and made some videos. I over heard him saying "Hi, this is Brian. Here's my Cars 2 movie. I am at Chemo. My Daddy left me. He went in his car. I am all alone."
  Again, rip my heart out. I called Fred who flew up to the hospital in flash and stayed with us the rest of the day. Brian was so happy to see Daddy he even got in the bed with Daddy.
We of course talked to Brian about all the above, but quite honestly we were just thrilled because if you remember Brian used to get so angry at Fred that he wouldn't talk to him. Brian wouldn't even acknowledge Fred talking to him. If Fred said, "I love you Brian." Brian would look away and say, "I love you Mommy." We are way past those days, HALLELUJAH, and Brian is a total Daddy's boy.

(The bear Fred is holding was a gift from the UWF Rugby team. They came around saying hello and giving gifts. They wanted a picture with Brian but B said "NO! That makes me scared.")

Our newest drama is poor Miss Olivia Eden. She and Brian were fighting yesterday and he pulled a scarf she was standing on which caused her to fall on her mouth. She tore the frenulum labii superioris and somehow managed to pull a tooth down and push the gums up. She might have permanently altered her gum line and we are still watching the tooth to see if it is going to die. And oh my goodness the amount of blood!! Drama, Drama, Drama. We should write a book about living with the Schreibers. Never a dull  moment. All this happened after we returned our late library books. They were due the day before but we were unexpectly at the hospital all day. As I am asking the lady how much we owe I see my boys scaling a statue. Yes, the Schreibers are always full of entertainment.

Here is Miss Olivia at the dentist. She was quite fussy and demanded to have my phone to play with and take pictures.

As you see from my picture of Olivia it wasn't worth the scene we would have made so here are Olivia's pictures from the dentist.

The joy at the end of this day was the left over cookie cake that Shelley had made for us the day of Brian's IVIG. Oh my goodness was it wonderful!!! I might have eaten about six pieces...