Monday
June 19, 2006
Radiation Day 28

Today was a Monday in all ways.  Each Monday we have to wake up early and put Aidan's magic cream on his port an hour before we are to be at radiation.  Mike and I put it on Aidan while he is sleeping and then one of us cuddles with him so he goes back to sleep.  This morning however, when Mike went to crawl in bed next to Aidan we had a major problem, Aidan had a accidentally pooed during the night.  He had loose bowels last night but we did not expect this to happen.  Of course there is no way to clean up such a thing without waking him up and when we did he was very unhappy.  To make matters worse, his poor little bottom was bright red and broken out.  Mike hopped in the shower with him and tried to calm him down while I got things cleaned up in the room.  As you can imagine, this sort of thing made us run a bit late.  Lenise was waiting for us when we finally got there.  The good news for Aidan was that Dr. Chen was there which made his day.  As each time before, Aidan was our hero and as brave as can be when George was put in today.  As soon as Lenise had finished he asked for his medal.  That now makes four. As par for the course on a Monday, the radiation machine that Aidan usually uses was down for repairs so we had to take him into different room.  He was a little apprehensive at first, I think he thought that we were doing something different since we were in a different room.  As soon as he realized that all the same people were there doing the same thing, he felt much better. 
After his treatment Aidan slept in my arms for about two and a half hours, with potty breaks in between, and then woke up in a great mood.  Afterward we headed back home for the usual Monday routine of cleaning and laundry to make up for the weekend. 
At around five I got a call from my dad.  He told me to get up and leave the room if the boys were with me.  I knew no good news could come from this kind of a start from a call.  I left the room and asked Dad what was going on.  He told me that he had just received a call from Desert Vet Clinic and that Lucy had been hit by a car and a good Samaritan had seen her get hit and picked her up.  She took Lucy to her Vet's office.  Somehow they had figured out that Lucy was normally seen at Desert Vet and that she was in transit there as we spoke.  There was no news on her condition and that I needed to call the vet's office.
I called at once and found out that Lucy had not yet arrived and the only other information they had for me was that when Lucy first arrived at the other clinic they were very worried about her but right before she left she was up and walking.  We decided to not tell the boys until after we had more news so we headed downstairs for dinner and waited.
Soon Dad called again to tell me that Mom was on her way down to the clinic and that Amy had called to say that Lucy had gotten out of the backyard and that they could not find her.  Dad then had to break the news to Amy that Lucy had been hit.  I felt so bad for her.  She has been doing us such a huge favor and been taking such great care of Lucy and then to have this happen.  While I was talking to Dad, Amy called through.  I missed her call but called her right back.  I explained to her that she did not need to worry.  We did not blame them at all for what happened and that it was just an accident.  She then said that she was going to also head down to the clinic and would call with news. 
We finished up dinner with the boys. Aidan cried because he wanted to go to radiation.  We explained that he could go in the morning but that still did not make him happy.  He wanted to go right now.  Mike told him we couldn't because Dr. Chen was at home in his pajamas playing video games.  Aidan got a good laugh out of that and then seemed to forget about it.
Once we were back upstairs we decided that we would not tell Aidan about Lucy, but we would tell Sage.  Sage didn't seem to quite know what to do but he was visibly shaken.  He responded with, "I hope Lucy will be ok but if anything happens at least we have DesiLu."  Mike and my heart sank.  We have not told the boys that DesiLu has a new home now. We had figured that with everything else going on with Aidan that we would wait to tell them until we got home.  Now this.
Soon the news came that Lucy was up walking and that her x-rays showed no damage to her spine or legs but she was bleeding out of her nose and eye.  They believed that she had neurological damage but did not know to what extent and that it would be touch and go for the next 72 hours.  Once again the Zaugg family was on their knees praying for the good Lord to be with our Lucy.
This happening to Lucy has put me, as I put it to Mike, two shakes from the edge.  As they say, "when it rains, it pours."