This is a Test...

As I type, Vampbaby is asleep, and Vampmommy and I are preparing for our first week in active cancer-treatment mode, with 5 days of testing that will lay the foundation for the beginning of chemotherapy. Here's the "week-at-a-glance":

Monday:
6am - Leave for Boston
10am - MRI. Vampbaby to be sedated for procedure
10:05am - Vampymommy and I get oriented to the hospital where we will spend most of the next year. Find the nearest Starbucks.
12pm - Vampbaby awakens, hungry from a lack of food due to sedation. Revenous gorging ensues.
1pm - Done for the day. Visit Ronald McDonald House, where we will spend the first of many nights during this process. Finally accept that, while I don't believe in their food practices, I'll happily take their affordable housing and support for families with children being treated for cancer. Follow move-in with reminiscent wandering throughout our favorite city, regailing Vampbaby with stories from our college days.

Tuesday:
8:15am - GSR (Kidney Test). Vampbaby is injected with a "tracer". Blood is drawn at 1, 2 and 3 hours after injection to see how his kidneys function.
4pm - Echocardiogram. Vampbaby dances to the beat of his own heart.
5pm - Go eat, since driving home at that hour from Boston makes no sense.
6pm - It makes sense now...Drive home, reunite with Vampdoggy.

Wednesday:
8am - Stuff Vampbaby with as much food and drink as possible, since as of 8:01 he is no longer allowed sustenance until day's procedures are over.
12pm - CT scan and Lumbar Puncture (Spinal Tap). Once again, Vampbaby is chemically induced into la-la-land while they drive a needle the size of a railroad spike into his back (it's probably not that big, but I imagine it's just as unpleasant).
2pm - Vampbaby emerges and eats most of the shops on Newbury Street. We return home before anyone is the wiser

Thursday:
10am - CSF Flow Study. Something is put in Vampbaby's spinal fluid (how, I don't know -- nor do I want to). Images are then taken at intervals throughout the day to see how his spinal fluid flows through his body. This is to determine whether or not he'll need an Omaya Line inserted - which would create an access line through his skull into the spinal fluid in the brain for chemotherapy.
3pm - Home again, to spend a quiet afternoon in our new garden (lovingly created by Vampmommy's co-workers this weekend...THANK YOU!).

Friday:
8am - Knowing that it's a light day on the cancer-treatment front, Vampdaddy goes to work in an effort to maintain both personal and professional sanity.
10am- Vampmommy and Vampbaby return to Boston for one last Image in the CSF study.
12pm - The week of testing over, provided he's up to it, Vampbaby spends the afternoon back at home, or visiting friends at school/daycare. Vampmommy attempts a return to the office.

In there somewhere will also be a hearing test, where Vampbaby will illustrate his uncanny ability to hear you and yet choose NOT to respond.

All of this will lead to the BIG DAY:
Monday, July 17th:
TBA - Vampbaby returns to Boston. Surgery to insert Portacath (permanent line in his chest for chemo) and potentially the aforementioned Omaya line. A week-long hospital stay and the first wave of intensive Chemotherapy commences.


And away we go....