Butt kickin' time.

What a hard, hard day. Ashton had an appointment at 12:10 with the radiation clinic to get his special mask made that he will wear during radiation. Of course, he was not to eat after midnight last night, and of course he woke up very hungry. We were allowed to give him clear liquids until 2 hours before his appt. time so we cut him off at 10:10. He cried and cried the whole way over to Stanford....and complained the entire time we were waiting which ended up being FOREVER because he didn't get taken back until 1:40!! I was furious....they schedule the early time in case we had paperwork or whatever, but we didn't and there was no reason for him to suffer for so long. He took a medicine to relax him before they put him under and it was so sad to see him smiling and being so loopy. At one point we were in the hall as they set more stuff up and he was just sitting there smiling and looking so sweet, like everyone was his friend. I felt sorry for him. It was at this point that Pat noticed a couple of people walking down a hall close to us and one of them was Willie Mays! He couldn't believe what he was seeing and tried to go after him but he slipped out a door somewhere. One nurse told Pat that celebrities do come and visit around the holidays and they don't let anyone know ahead of time, they just show up. My husband was starstruck.....I wished Pat would have got to meet him, it would have made his day. After that it was time to take Ashton back to the room where the procedure was being done. We were allowed to come in while they put the mask, for the gas, on him and be there as he fell asleep. I tried to stay, but just couldn't. I got too choked up seeing him looking up and smiling as they put the mask on his sweet face, waiting for him to go out. This will happen Monday thru Friday for 6 weeks. He has to be put under for his radiation because he has to hold still. Someone I met at the Hospital who had a little boy, younger then Asthon, that had just been through radiation, told me the hardest thing for her was watching him go to sleep everyday. I didn't understand that when she told me, now I do. They gave us a pager and told us it would be a couple of hours before he would be done, so we went and got lunch, but I hardly ate. It was difficult when I knew Ashton was so hungry and I wanted to wait and eat with him.
I had no idea he wouldn't be eating anything until 6 at night. When he woke from the procedure, he had a pretty bad reaction to the anesthesia (sp?) He just was so upset, he screamed and screamed for at least a half hour to 45 minutes. They finally gave him something to calm him down but that took a while to take effect and it was so hard to see him going through this. I asked if this is what it would be like each day for 6 weeks and they didn't know. The nurse said this happens sometimes and that he wouldn't be out for so long with the radiation so maybe it will be easier. He did do something funny though, once he began to relax and settle down. The medication they gave to relax him also made him act a bit drunk so he was saying some pretty funny things. At one point there was a few other people in the room, a social worker, nurse, dr. and Ashton blurted out "Its butt kickin' time!" Everyone laughed and I had to explain that he has been watching ALOT of Spongebob lately and he had just watched an episode where some bigger fish was wanting to kick spongebob's butt. It was cute, but in a way....he's right. Time to kick this cancer's butt!! Once we left the recovery area we went to the cafeteria and got Ashton a grilled cheese sandwich and some ice cream. He ate it all in the car on the way home. I ate nothing, my head was hurting so bad and I just had no appetite after this hard day. It is 10:20 and Ashton is still awake, tossing and turning in bed, the effects of today have not worn off yet.
I'm am hoping, really hoping, this is not how it will be for the next 6 weeks.

They finally gave me his start date, its next Friday the 12th. He will come each day for an 8 O'clock appointment and that means I have to leave at about 6:45. My stepdad has agreed to come and take the kids to school. It will be hard the first few times but I'm sure we will all get the hang of it. The good thing is he won't have to be hungry all day, he can eat after treatment, and they said we should be ready to leave the hospital around noon each day. That means we will have time in the afternoon for physical therapy, which he still has not received due to all the appointments popping up. They are coming out this weekend, so that is great. Monday he has appointments for a hearing baseline test and a Psychology test. They will be keeping track of any problems he will have due to the radiation and the dr. told me, he will definitely have them.