Whew!

Today was a clinic day, which is a day where we go to the hospital and go straight into the Oncology/Hematology outpatient clinic, not to the ward, where we were before. Since Noah had blood work on Wednesday, I knew that as well as his regularly scheduled Chemotherapy, he would need to have a bone marrow biopsy to check up on the percentage of blast cells (or as Laura Hols said today, those"blasted blast cells", lol) and since he was very anemic, some blood. (Yesterday he was VERY pale and quiet and "unenergetic" - I know, that isn't a word-but not lethargic, I don't really know how to explain it... ) I did not expect this to take seven (yes, 7) hours, however!
We arrived at 9:40 and were shown into a room where they gave him an anti-nausea medication called Ondansetron (Noah thinks that sounds like the name of a bionicle or transformer ) in his IV and put some numbing cream on Noah's back, so he wouldn't feel the poke. This made him nervous because he has previously been under general anesthetic and didn't feel anything. Today he was under conscious sedation, which means not asleep fully, but still not really aware of what is going on. He did just fine, and doesn't remember a thing, which is the goal. So after about 1/2 hour we went into the procedure room, and after he went under, I left to get him food. when I came back he was awake and starving! He hadn't eaten anything since around 9 pm yesterday, so I got him some food. So we sat and waited. and waited. and finally a nurse came and gave him the first chemo drug of the day, Vincristine. That took about an hour, so when that was done, I went back to Second Cup and got him another Egg /english muffin sandwich, and a huge cookie, and then we waited some more. At around 1 the nurse brought his blood in and started that. It takes 3 hours, so we sat in the waiting area and played scrabble and battleship, tried a bunch of different video games, looked at a Guinness book of records, watched part of a movie on his ipod, ate some more, etc. Finally someone put Cars into the DVD player so he watched that until the blood was done.
The waiting area is a big room with a lot of different toys, a kitchen set, games, computers and a big TV. Today I think there were probably 10-12 kids and their parents/ siblings in there either waiting for procedures or getting chemo treatments. Pretty bizarre, all these little kids, some only 2 or so, pulling these IV poles around with them going from activity to activity getting chemotherapy while they play. And parents sitting and talking about their experiences. It feels strange to be making new connections around cancer of all things. Bizarre doesn't quite describe it. It is certainly beyond me....
Then we were brought into a room where a nurse gave the second Chemo drug, daunorubicin, and then she de-accessed him, which he is very pleased about. De-accessing means they pulled the needle with the line attached out of his VAD. Since last Wed, he has had this line attached to his chest, but no more! He now simply has a little bump under his skin, about the size of a thick dime, maybe a little bigger, and when that heals up, no one will know it is there. Very cool. He feels way better now, and he can have a shower without a big sheet of Glad Press n' Seal on his chest. (apparently it works really well for medical purposes, too! Who knew?)
When it was all said and done, it was 4:30, and I suddenly remembered that I had only paid for 2 hrs of parking! I was totally kicking myself; all that sitting around and I didn't remember to go top it up???? Another parent made me feel better, though, he told me that all I have to do is give the ticket to our social worker on Monday when we go back and she will "take care of it". Apparently parking tickets on clinic days don't stick. Sweet. : )
For those of you who have been praying for the numbers to be low, thank you and please continue! We will find out the results next week sometime. Wouldn't it be a testament to the power of God and the power of prayer if those "blasted blast cells" were close to 5%? I am praying it with every breath...
So yeah, a lot happened, but yet it felt like a lot of sitting around! I suppose this is what we will be doing for the next 5-8 months - spending a lot of time sitting in the clinic! A strange new reality.
Noah is getting tired of movies and video games, and is ready to do some school work! Aleeda is bringing a novel study when she comes and Tom is bringing his Math book. He is actually excited about this and I am glad.
The thing we are most excited about is that Tom and Emily, Miranda and Alyson are coming down here soon, arriving on Monday. Neither of us can wait!