Slowpoke Sloth Ventures Out

Little Miss Abby, a.k.a. Doc McAbby, heard that I went into sloth mode on  the days I have a chemo treatment. She decided  that if Grandma was going to  become a sloth, maybe I should take a sloth with me to "get my medicine." I'm not sure how that is supposed to work, since sloths are somewhat solitary creatures, but maybe in this situation two sloths are better than one.

So Abby brought me a sloth  a week or so ago. He's a very handsome fellow and doesn't seem to mind  being here instead of  living in a tree in the rain forests of Central and South America.
Although  the three-toed sloth, which is what Slowpoke is,  has an official family name of Bradypus, I've named him Slowpoke, because like  his relatives in the trees, he moves verrrry slowly. A sloth moves  only about six to eight feet a minute. The name  Bradypus comes from Greek and means slow feet, so I figure Slowpoke is a very similar word in English. As you can see, Slowpoke has a lovely shiny coat. When  living in the trees he moves so slowly that algae grows on his fur, so he looks green. This is good in a way because  the green lets him  blend in with the leaves so  predators can't see him. He's very vulnerable to attack when he's on the ground because he moves so slowly. His hind legs are very weak so he has to move forward by digging into the ground and dragging his body along. He has a hard time  getting away from larger animals that might attack him-he has to try to defend himself by  biting, and scratching with his claws.  He doesn't come out of the trees very often, though.  For instance, he  comes down from the trees to  use the bathroom but since it takes so long to digest a meal he only needs to relieve himself once a week. He eats mostly  tough leaves that are very hard to digest.  They are so hard to digest that a sloth has a four part stomach to  break down the leaves, and it can take anywhere from  two weeks to a month  for  a sloth to digest a meal. His diet provided very little nutrition or energy, which could be why sloths move so slowly. Slowpoke must still be digesting his last meal because he doesn't seem hungry at all.

Although sloths spend  most of their time in trees and come  down rarely, sometimes  they  drop out of the trees over water to go for a swim.  Sloths may move slowly on the ground but they are strong swimmers and can do a mean breaststroke with their powerful front arms/legs. We don't have a pool and don't live close to the water, so poor Slowpoke won't get  a chance to show me what a good swimmer he is while he's here.

Slowpoke, like all sloths, and some teenagers, likes to sleep a lot, sometimes up to fifteen or twenty hours a day. Needless to say, I had a hard time waking slowpoke up yesterday to go to the clinic with me. But I finally got him up and let him sleep in the big bag that I take with me to treatments. I keep a couple of blankets in the bag because it's very chilly in the  infusion room so Slowpoke  had a nice soft ride in the car and seemed quite contented as you can see, although I think he was a little unnerved to be moving so fast with no effort on his part.

Once we arrived at the clinic and I had  my blood pressure taken and blood drawn for a blood test (Slowpoke had to turn his head away- he doesn't like blood tests at all) we  went to one of the exam rooms. Slowpoke  chose a  red chair to sit in and wait for the  doctor. I thought he looked a little worried that  somebody might try to examine him but I assured him that wasn't going to happen.

After I'd seen the doctor and introduced her to Slowpoke we went across to the infusion room, where Slowpoke settled into one of the big blue recliners, waiting for me to come back from the restroom.

Once I was in the chair, covered with my nice warm blanket and hooked up to my chemo treatment bags and pump on a pole, we settled in together for the  four hour infusion. Needless to say, Slowpoke  fell asleep, and I  kept dozing off myself.

When we were finally unhooked and headed  up to the  waiting room to check on my next appointment and let Mr. G know we were ready to go,  we ran into  my medical oncologist, Dr. Katisha Vance, and my radiation oncologist, Dr. Clint Holladay. Slowpoke said he'd like to have his picture taken with them, and they kindly obliged. I'd love to know what Slowpoke is whispering in Doc Holladay's ear, it must have been funny, though, the way  everybody is laughing.

Once at home, both Slowpoke and I  went to sleep. I woke up and played on facebook for a few minutes, ate and drank something, then went back to sleep off and on all day. In other words, I  entered sloth mode, but this time I had a friend in the same mode.