Wednesday, October 24, 2007

First Day of DI Complete

Ben had a tough day but he is sleeping now. We went straight to the hospital after dropping David off at school this morning. After going through the wonderful admissions process :) he then had to have blood drawn to make sure that all was okay for the busy morning of procedures.

Ben had an IV put in which was particularly painful today. He then had a spinal tap, a new PICC line put in, was given Vincristine and Doxorubicin and had more blood taken for additional tests. It took awhile for him to fully wake up from the drugs but was a good sport about everything as usual. His first request was for the candy dispensing machine full of candy corn that Grammy and Poppy brought for him. The drugs seem to be taking their toll on his tummy so was not feeling well and wanted to try to go to sleep early tonight. We are hoping that when he receives the chemo next Wednesday that it won't be quite as bad so that he can have a normal Halloween night.

Ben is upset about the fact that he needs a PICC line again. He knows that it is a good thing considering all the transfusions and blood draws that need to be done over the next 2 months, but he was really enjoying "feeling like a normal kid" for the past few weeks. The good thing is that this should be the last difficult phase and after we make it through this he will be in the Maintenance Phase for the next 3+ years. Bummer that it takes so long...but is so much less intense than the last 6 months...and no PICC line!

The steroids have also started today so hopefully they won't make him too moody this time around. He is really looking forward to the Book Fair at school tomorrow so we are hopeful he feels well in the morning. He recently jumped up to reading chapter books so he is excited to pick out some new books to read.

I guess I should try to go to bed. Ben talked me into letting him sleep in bed with me so that he can get extra snuggles tonight to help him feel better. Of course David couldn't be left out so now it is Mommy, two boys and three cats! We will all have sweet dreams together (especially now that we found out that Daddy gets to come home tomorrow from his trial!)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey Ben!!! Just popping in to give you a big hug :) I've been kind of busy. I'm ending pediatrics rotations and I was assigned at heme-onc service. I had five patients with AML and ALL. Believe me, they hate trouble with the IV line insertion, too, and the daily blood draws :D (they say it's less painful when I do the drawing & the inserting, though :D)

Anyway, I miss you :) Hug ;)