April 11th, 2013

Thursday

Unit 1

Weight: 13.25 kg
Nurses: Becky

Here is a picture to start off with. You were "hiding" from the camera!

Today began with snow.  I am so tired of the snow, especially in April.  I took a picture of it and you thought it was pretty funny that I took a picture out the window.  What a goof!  This trip I packed a jacket so at least I have something for this crazy Calgary weather as I walk back and forth to RMH.

Your dad and I were also given a lesson in caring for your broviac by our nurse, Becky.  We had to learn how to do hypren-locking which protects the lines from blood clots, as well as change the dressing around your broviac.  The tasks seems very daunting for me and I am glad that your dad likes doing and learning things like this and we will doing it at home together.  We practiced on Chester, a manikin, and not on you.  

We also met with Dr. Anderson.  He came to give us a look into our future.  He summed up the fact that you will probably be in Calgary the full 6 to 9 months.  You may have an opportunity to stay at RMH, but would not be going back home to Medicine Hat until you were completely done your chemo.  You have just completed the reduction stage, which was 7 days long and you finished today.  You will now start the induction stage.  There will be two parts of the induction stage, each lasting 21 days (approx.).  There will be 7 days of chemo treatment and then 14 days without.  After the induction stage you will have the continuous phase.  There will also be 2 parts to this stage, each lasting 21 days (approx.).  Then you will have a maintenance phase, which will be four parts, each last approximately 21 days.  The induction phase, which starts tomorrow, will have some new medications which are Methotrexate, Doxorubicin, and Cyclophosphamide as well as the ones you had in the reduction stage.  It is a lot to take in and we are taking the night to let it all absorb.

My favorite part of today was snuggling with you on the window bed.  Your dad tends to be your favorite right now, which is to be expected since he does the majority of everything and spends the nights with you. However, today you let me have the snuggles and cuddles.  

You have also been complaining that your mouth hurts when you drink.  We have been trying to pump you full of fluid so you don't have to be hooked up to an IV again.  It has been nice to have ditched the IV pole and I think you have been liking being free of it too.  Anyways, dad finally grabbed the doctor's light "thingy" (lol) from off the wall and looked in your mouth.  This is not an easy task as it involved forcing your mouth open and usually a finger being bitten.  He saw some sores on the sides of your mouth.  We let your nurse know and dad needed to repeat the whole mouth propping open process so she could see, the nurse let the doctor know and dad repeated once again.  You are not happy, in fact you are screaming mad, your dad's fingers don't feel too well but everyone got a look and you are now back on morphine for the pain.  You also need to do a mouth rinse to help relieve some pain from the sores.  You are definitely not a fan of this.  We try to show you what swishing and spitting look like, but at this point you are not doing anything.  Well once again dad is holding you down on the bed while I swab your mouth with the rinse and try to get you to spit the rest out.  I won't go into details but it wasn't good.  We need to repeat this mouth rinse process before you eat...this is not going to be good.

Aunty Chandra and Mailey came for a visit.  It was nice again to see some familiar faces.  Aunty brought dad a foamy sponge for the bed at the hospital.  Hopefully it will make his bed a little bit nicer to lye in.  

Because you are not drinking much, obviously because of the sores in your mouth, you are back on saline.  Hopefully the sores heal quickly so we can get back to drinking fluids.  You will also have to fast after midnight tonight as you have a bone marrow aspiration in the morning.  I am not too sure how the morning is going to go as you have an increased appetite.  We will need some major distractions!

Love you buddy,

Mom