Believe.

It's Thursday and my friend pointed out to me last night that I had not posted since Saturday.  A lot has happened since then!

First of all, little Pablo is out of the hospital and recovering at home.  One word:  BELIEVE.  They don't have the pathology report back but as everyone touched by cancer will tell you, having an extremely positive attitude, strong conviction and beliefs is better than any medicine, radiation or surgery.  www.getwellpablo.blogspot.com

Second, for the first time in 11 weeks, I went to the office Tuesday morning!  First I had breakfast with Vic from Razor & Tie at my favorite place, Grey Dog, on Carmine Street.  Having suffered working in midtown for 13 years, it's a treat having an office in the center of Greenwich Village with pretty fantabulous dining options including at least 3 vegetarian restaurants!   Anyway, Vic asked me if I thought coming back to work mid-June seemed likely and I surprised him by saying my goal is June 8, depending on Sylvie's post-surgery recovery and beginning of round 5 of chemotherapy.  That being said, at this time there's no way I can return to work full time based on Sylvie's doctor visits, in-patient & out-patient treatments, at home medical regimen and surprise visits to the Emergency Room, so we're assessing the work load and I am hoping that hopefully this will work out.  I am eager to get back to work and be part of the team but I also don't want to be a burden on anyone either.  

Third, let's talk food.  If you told me three years ago that my kid would be eating Baskin Robbins rainbow sherbert ("it tastes like rainbow!"), Lollipops, Pizza and ice cream sandwiches FOR BREAKFAST and penne alfredo IN BED at THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING, I would definitely say something on the order of "No F$&%&% way!" or "You're on drugs."  Alas, this is our life.  Sylvie was so used to getting 500 calories at night via the NG tube that she's a starving lunatic in the middle of the night.  I really hope this balances out sometime soon. It's like having a newborn baby that talks back to you.  I looked at Michael the other night and said, "I just can't do it!" so he and Lucky went to sleep in Sylvie's room, bowl of pasta in hand.  I love it, not, when Sylvie says, "it's too hot...it's too cold... the pieces are too big... too small" and my favorite, "it's too crunchy" regarding a fish stick (organic of course!) when she had just eaten 4 pieces of pop corn.  Sylvie's new favorite is pizza to go from Ridgewood Pizza and then eating vanilla gelato in the Whole Foods cafe as an appetizer.  Last night, Sylvie rediscovered Applegate turkey breast and is currently eating it for breakfast, too (along with Greek Gods honey yogurt, a piece of Amy's Pizza and the prerequisite lollipop).    

Since I'm home, I have the liberty of doing gardening work at 'normal hours.'  Before, I used to have to do it at 5 am which pretty much sucked.  Anyway, the hard work of planting spring bulbs has paid off however as I stare at the tulips and daffodils, I've come to the conclusion that the Dutch Gardens in Vermont packed some of the wrong ones in the individual bulb bags!  They look very colorful but I can assure you that I would not have planted elegant Black Jewel tulips (the color of Essie "Wicked" nail polish!) alongside the more pedestrian daffodils!  We shall see!  I spent hours picking, plotting and planting them...

 I'll write a separate posting on our meeting with Dr. Victor Valda yesterday.