Wak Goes to College

Monday was awesome! Tate attended his first classes as a college freshman. He is enrolled in calculus, engineering, psychology, and English 101. He talked to each of his professors, explaining that he has Leukemia and may have some scheduled absences for treatment and unscheduled emergency absences. The psychology teacher was very understanding and said it shouldn’t be a problem. The English teacher wants Tate to take her classes scheduled on different days in advance when he knows he will be out for treatment. He can do that. The calculus and engineering teachers both pretty much said he better keep it to three absences and not to expect any special treatment. It’s good he knows what the teachers’ expectations are right away. Tate is an excellent student; I hope they see that as the semester progresses.

Tate originally planned to go to ASU, but a year ago when a normal student would be applying for scholarships and taking the SATs, he was so sick and undergoing such harsh treatment that preparing for college wasn’t anywhere on our radar. Now that it is, using his scholarship at Mesa Community College seemed like the logical choice. Tate attends a very nice campus at Power and McDowell. It’s small enough that he can walk to his classes without much trouble.

Tate was so silly when I picked him up the first day. He had his oldest, most favorite stuffed animal “Wak” sticking out of his backpack. We laughed and laughed and laughed. When Tate was little he brought Wak everywhere, and he thought it would be funny to surprise me with that old toy on his first day of college. It was. Wak has been to the beach, to Disneyland, to Peter Piper Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheese, and to every park and down every slide and on every swing with Tate. And now Wak has been to college.

After three days of college, Tate woke up sick. Not having been granted extra days off by three of his four teachers, he rallied and made it to class on Thursday. Then he had a long hard sleep. He didn’t wake up feeling any better, but fortunately he doesn’t have class on Fridays so he got a full day of rest.

This morning Tate spiked a fever and we took him to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital emergency room. They ran his bloodwork, tested him for cold and flu viruses, pumped him full of fluids and antibiotics, and after five hours, sent us home. We were surprised Tate was discharged and not admitted. The nurse explained that since the test indicated he has Influenza A and his bloodwork looks very promising, they are confident the fever was not caused by anything bacterial and were therefore comfortable letting him ride it out at home.

Big brother Scott always comes through when Tate is struggling; it is camaraderie at its best. Scott teased Tate about landing in the hospital after only a few days of class, and Tate told Scott his hat is goofy and way too thick. Saturday mornings Scott works the Brat Haus booth at the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market, and since he came directly from work to the hospital, he smelled like grease. But no matter, having him there was the best thing to happen today.

I’m glad Tate is home, resting in his comfortable bed under the ambivalent watch of his cat. It’s scary though, trying to determine whether he’s safe to be here or if he needs to go back to the hospital. I know they wouldn’t have sent him home if they thought he was in immediate danger. I keep telling myself that to keep worry at bay.

The ER doctor prescribed Tate something to help speed the virus through its life cycle so he will feel better soon. As soon as we got home, the Walgreens Pharmacy robot called us saying there was a problem with his prescription, and by the time Greg sorted it out with our insurance company, the pharmacy had closed so we can’t pick it up until tomorrow. Sigh. Evidently someone at Walgreens kept entering the wrong code and that’s why it was rejected by Cigna and that’s why Tate doesn’t have his medicine.

Greg and I are going to be checking on Tate and taking his temperature more often than he likes while he fights this flu. Discharge instructions are to keep the fever under control with 650mg of Tylenol every 4 hours and to make sure he’s getting lots of fluids. We are on it!