8/29 - PICC me out'a bed...

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Monday, August 29, 2005
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Ahh... the first day of school. Son #4 has been getting tired
early, so he went to bed early Sunday night. The other three boys
were excited about the first day of school, so even though we made
them go to bed early, they couldn’t sleep. Then, this morning, son
#4 got up at 5AM, and woke the rest of the house up. So, the boys
weren’t late for their first day of school, but they were a little
crabby tonight at family night.

Son #4 is getting healthier every day. But, he seems to get tired
after awhile, and he doesn’t like his helmet. (Although he’s put a
bunch of stickers on it and it looks pretty cool.) When we went to
church yesterday, he was a celebrity. The teachers all said how
amazed and happy they were that he was back. In the main children’s
meeting, they presented him with a pillow case that they had all
signed with get well wishes. He wrapped it around his shoulders and
you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face if you had to. The doc
said that if he was sitting still or laying down that he could take
off his helmet, so when he asked to take it off I did. You could
hear the other little kids say, “oohh... ahh...”. I think son #4
liked the attention.

We got a call from son #4’s surgeon today. He said that it looked
like the tumor was a low grade ependymoma. They sent off part of it
to Johns Hopkins and the Mayo clinic to make sure. We have an
appointment with the oncologist on Thursday to talk about
treatments. We’ll find out more then.

The bills are starting to come every day now, and we’ve only had a
dozen guesses of what the total will be, so feel free to give me
your guess. I think my guess of $175,000 is going to be low, so
guess away. Anyway, a couple of people have asked if we’ll be ok
with all of the bills. Our insurance has a yearly maximum out of
pocket figure that we’ll be able to meet, so we should be fine.
This hospital is also a non-profit hospital that will treat anyone
regardless of their ability to pay. If you want to find out about
giving something, or donating time, go to
http://www.ihc.com/xp/ihc/primary/ and click on “Giving and
Volunteering.”

And...
Enjoy today’s Jokes!
Marty

p.s. Oh, and you guys on the coast, keep dry and safe 'eh?!

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Reader Comment Section:

>Son #2 just walked in. "Dad, I just pulled out another tooth."
>"Oh, that's cool. Where is it?" I replied. "I just put it in my
>wallet with my other one."

…When I was about 12, I finally got around to losing the last of my
baby teeth. Unfortunately, we were staying the summer with my
grandparents. The first tooth fell out at dinner, so we washed it
off, and under the pillow it went… BUT, as I lay down that night,
the tooth next to it finally popped out too. Too tired to tell
anyone, I simply stuck it under the pillow too. Well, the tooth
fairy was not paying much attention that night, and the second
tooth got left. The good news, it was picked up the next morning
before the bed got made!
Jen B.
Morrow, Ohio

>The home care nurse came in today and showed my sweet wife how to
>do a heparin injection in his PICC line each day

What is a PICC line?
Richard S.

[A PICC line is a “Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter”]
[And thanks for supplying a more detailed answer to your question]