“My dangly thing”

It was a good thing we squeezed in those two normal days, sandwiched as they were between much longer hospital visits. Yesterday, he had clinic after radiation, which isn’t bad except that there is so much waiting involved. Waiting for lab work to return, waiting for doctors to be paged, waiting for decisions to be made. It’s just tedious, especially with a three-year old to drag around, feed and entertain. And then today he needed a blood transfusion so this turned into another seven hour day (too bad I don’t get paid for this!). It’s sad when every department we leave, people call out, “Bye, see you Monday!”

But Austin is the constant trooper, managing to find fun wherever he goes. He’s been a little less energetic (which, in Austin, goes virtually unnoticed) and hasn’t had quite the same appetite as usual, but is still feeling generally fine. His blood counts have dropped significantly since Monday so no more school for a while, but right now he’s sledding with Daddy and Braedan, so who cares about blood counts?

We’ve made it through the first week of Neupogen shots but I haven’t gotten any better at it. I am extremely slow going in, as I’ve always been on myself (much to the horror and disbelief of those watching me). So when I say we’ve made it through the first week, that’s only because he’s been sedated! A few of you who are nurses have offered to come over and give him his shots and I will shamelessly take you up on those very kind offers. Better he fear you than me. Plus I trust you’ll be a little quicker at it. He needs one tomorrow and Sunday, around 9 am (which I’m sure we can tweak by a little if necessary). Let me know if you’re interested — first come first serve!

He had his mediport de-accessed this afternoon before we left. I’m not sure if that’s the right word to describe it but they pulled the needle out so all that’s left is the button safely tucked under his skin. And seeing how happy this made him almost made all those access pokes worth it. He jumped up and down as he announced to Mark, “They taked my dangly thing out! Look, look, no dangly thing!” and then proceeded to roll around on the floor to show how free he was.

That’s my boy.