10/19 - Needles and Hurdles

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Thursday, October 19, 2006
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No wonder why son #4 hates the hospital. Usually they have the IV
team come in and start his IV. They did it in one try yesterday.
We kept it in yesterday, in hopes that it would work today. But
when my sweet wife tried to flush his line with heparin this
morning, he said it hurt. A lot! So, after the nurse checked, they
decided that the line wouldn’t work today. So, they brought the IV
team in again today, and it took them 4 times(!!) to stick him and
find a good vein. It was pretty stressful.

But, son #4 knew everything about putting in IVs. Yesterday after
they put his IV in, we spent about 20 minutes in his room, with
the child life specialist, putting in several IVs into Parker bear’s
arm. Even after the specialist and son #4 took the needle
out, and left the ‘straw’ in his arm, son #4 pumped Parker’s arm
with two full syringes full of water. His arm was dripping wet.
Then, after we got home yesterday, my sweet wife said son #4
pumped in another 3 or 4 syringes full of water into that poor
bear’s arm.

(When you read the issue I have linked above, don’t think my sweet
wife wasn’t going to cut off 8 inches of her beautiful red hair,
and then donate it to Locks of Love...
When we told son #4 last year that she was going to cut it, it drove
him almost to tears. He said, “I won’t be able to tell who you are
any more!” With his poor eye site, her red hair is something he
can pick out in a small crowd. There were several of us
(especially me) that were grateful that she had an excuse not to
cut it.)

We’ll find out later (tomorrow?) how the spinal fluid testing for
cancer cells went. One of the doctors went over (extensively) with
me, each picture of the MRI son #4 had done today. He didn’t see
even a chance of anything being a tumor, and of course, with my
extensive PACS administrator training (very few days) I knew
exactly what I was looking for. (not)

At the end of our visit, I asked about his CBCs (complete blood
count) from yesterday. The doc said that because of his radiation
they would expect some of his counts to be lower than normal. I
guess certain ones on his test where slightly elevated. He later
called us and said we needed to get another blood test for
precocious puberty. That occurs sometimes in pediatric brain
tumor patients who have had radiation. It has to do with the
hypothalamus and radiation. We knew that this might be a possibility
before making the decision to do radiation. And it can be treated
with meds. So, it’s not that big of a deal. Yet... They said we
could do his blood test Dec 4th when he has his bone reconstructive
surgery.

Another day, another small hurdle.

Enjoy today’s Jokes!
Marty

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Reader comments

At St. Jude we usually get our MRI results right away, but it
never ceases to be a stressful thing, taking a look inside his
head. Of the four families we shared our kitchen with at Ronald
McDonald House during Steven's radiation, two of those kids, both
boys with brain tumors, died during the next year. The road is not
easy. I'm very happy to hear that Jimmy's scans look clear.
~Kathy
[Steven’s Mom]

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Don't panic, but there has been an alarming increase in the number
of things you know nothing about.
=-=-=-
My doctor told me there are now more than seventy million people
who are overweight. These are, of course, round figures.
=-=-=-
Did I tell you about the time Wisconsin held a contest to come up
with a new state slogan? One angry woman who was sick and tired of
all the tourists suggested, "Smell Our Dairy Air!"
~Ruby C.

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"Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie have settled their dispute. They
say that their two hearts combined make one. Their two brains also
combined to make one." --Jay Leno
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Smoky, our family cat, had gotten injured and needed to stay at
the vet clinic for several days. Our three children were so
concerned that several times a day, my wife and I had to reassure
them that Smoky was safe and being cared for by the "animal
doctor." Finally, we got the call that Smoky was ready to come
home. Driving to the vet's, it became clear that our four-year-old
son, Ryan, had been doing a lot of thinking about Smoky's absence
when he asked, "Mom, what kind of animal is the doctor?"