Post-surgery Fun

The surgery was a great success. The team of doctors not only implanted the double-access port, performed the bone marrow aspiration, and biopsied the mass, but they also inserted a nasal-gastrointestinal tube (NG tube) to relieve the build up of acids + fluids in Samuel's stomach. The NG tube would drain the accumulation of fluids which should have otherwise passed through the duodenum into the stomach and out as waste. It is not a pleasant thing, but it certainly did the job relieving the painful build-up and eased Samuel's discomfort immensely in that area.

Samuel with the sock monkey gift from BF Julian :)

Unfortunately, Samuel had a tremendous amount of pain from the abdominal incision (about 2 inches vertical above his belly button). The doctors had him on morphine for a few days, but his body had violent negative reactions to the drug (extreme irritation/agitation and discomfort) that we were forced to refuse any further use of the narcotic. Here again we thank God for the wisdom + concern of those around us because we were able to greatly reduce the pain with only frequent drops of a therapeutic grade oil under his tongue. Utterly miraculous - details on this to come because we simply HAVE to share how incredible this was!

Resting....

Following the surgery, Samuel went in for the bone scan. This was not a painful procedure, although quite long of a day, and Samuel certainly was not feeling very good.

His awesome sister made this cool snowman for Samuel while hanging out in the sibling clubhouse. She was unable to visit him on the unit because of flu season restrictions. We hung it on the door immediately opposite his bed so that he could see it and smile often! She also picked out two matching stuffed monkey toys so that they would have twin buddies to snuggle with while separated. *love*

 Coolest balloon everrrr from Julian + his mom!

Hanging tough :)