Pennies for Cancer

I just walked in the door and Malachai’s coin box was open on the dining room table. It was empty. Hm. Michael then told me that Malachai took all of his pennies to school today to give to Pennies for Cancer.

Please wait a moment while my heart shatters and mends itself and bursts with pride.

This is huge. This isn’t the story of some random seven year old giving his pennies away. This is the story of my seven year old. My seven year old who is obsessed with coins. He stacks them. He counts them. He moves them from one container to another and back again. He finds them in the strangest of places and brings them home to put in his box(es). He finds them in the house and comes running to me to ask if he can have it because he found it. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, American, Canadian, Israeli, you name it he wants it.

My coin loving and hording baby decide to take his pennies in to school today in a zip lock baggie to give to help find a cure for cancer.

I have no idea if he made the connection that his grandma died from cancer. I have no idea if he even realized what an amazing this he was doing, and not just because he took probably over a dollar in pennies in to school in a little bag.

They were *his* pennies. His coins. Can I even stress this enough? What a wonderful little man I am helping to raise.

ETA, from Michael: He had mentioned it to me on Monday when I picked him up from school and I told him that it is a good thing to do if he wants to. It is a form of tzedukah, charity basically. I promptly forgot about it until this morning.

He was trying to shove his coin box into his bag and told me that he wanted to give all of his pennies to Pennies for Cancer. I asked him a few times if he was sure and he said yes. I suggested he put them in a sandwich bag instead of the box. He seemed so happy about doing this that I just helped him right along.

He has helped do some good in this world and he will start his coin collection all over again. I think when he gets up in the morning, he will have some new coins in his box, whatever change I have in my pocket at least.

update/mom

dad just got home, they are keeping mom for a few days. they aren’t quite sure what is wrong. he said they mentioned something about the ilium (part of the colon) and that it could be infected, it could be twisted around causing massive constipation /uncomfort which could lead to septicemia (which we are all too familiar with, i had it develop from an undetected uti in aug. 2000) which is why *i* was so concerned with the shaking this am.

basically, he said that it didn’t seem to be due to the chemo, but had an underlying cause. i hope it wasn’t ignored for a week, having attributed these same symptoms last week to the chemo.

anyway, mom is in the hospital for the next few days, fun fun.

hopefully there will be good news tomorrow on many fronts, mom’s condition, michael’s job, and my sanity.

much love and many thanks to all who have been thinking about us these past few weeks.

stupid chemo.

mom is in the hospital. doc didn’t know what was wrong (she had the shakes, chills, vomiting, you name it, basically) and had her admitted, and with an iv and antibiotics. while i think it stupid to run antibiotics when you don’t know what’s wrong, i appreciate the iv, b/c mom has not been drinking enough.

gram is on her way down (and zaide too) and bringing dinner, and dad will be home soon. *sigh*

i am tired.

my gramma just called

so now b/c mom isn’t reacting “well” to the chemo, gram is neurotic they didn’t get all the cancer out. hello! they biopsied around the cut site, and everything else while they were at it why does she have to go there? i mean, it could be a zillion times worse. she could be not reacting well 6 days a week instead of one.

this morning she said she couldn’t do it anymore. the chemo? more rockiness from jenn lies head! b/c mom doesn’t need to be told she *has* to, she needs to be supported in going. does that make sense?

or we could just keep her drugged up.

*laughs maniacally* i don’t think there are enough drugs in the universe for that. *sigh* time to formulate a new plan.

on the mom front…………

mom did her chemo Monday, and was in awesome spirits :-) Monday night we went to Fridays’s for a brownie supremo (mmmmmmm warm brownie, caramel and vanilla ice cream……. heaven) and to top it off, she was still in good spirits all day Tuesday, and so far today! whoohoo! we will see how it fare’s next week, and the week after……. well, you know, but it’s so far, so good.