Dwayne’s New Digs

It has been a very quiet weekend; it seems Tate needs sleep more than anything else.  I am concerned by how thin he is becoming again, but he is making a conscious effort to eat even though it hurts, and he is drinking a lot.  I know Tate is doing the everything he can to take care of himself.

He has four appointments next week:  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he is scheduled to get Erwinia shots.   Thursday he has a spinal tap with a dose of intrathecal chemotherapy.  Thursday he will also get MTX and vincristine through his port.  I’ll post quick updates after each of those appointments.

Tate hasn’t had much energy to move around this weekend.  Going between his room and the bathroom in his wheelchair is about as far as he could make it.

Greg spent the weekend preparing Dwayne’s winter lodging.  It turns out Dwayne is a snowbird!  If you’re wondering where Dwayne lived the first five winters we had him, the answer is our dining room.  Really.  It was like have a dusty little dinosaur living in the breakfast nook.  When Tate was diagnosed with Leukemia, Dwayne had to move outside immediately and permanently.  There is a corner of our back yard that is perfect for him to live in the summer; it always has shade and is somehow usually pretty damp.  Now that it’s October, he needs warmer, drier accommodations so Greg moved him to a sunny spot in the yard and built him a cabin.

Here’s Dwayne getting measured for his new door.

No one loves a pet project more than Greg.  No one.

At first Dwayne didn’t understand how his new house works.  It seems tortoises have no instincts for using ramps.

This morning Dwayne seemed happily settled into his new place and was walking up and down that ramp like a pro!