Another Surgery Under the Belt (just not below it this time, hah!)

We are home this evening after Samuel's very successful surgery to remove his defective Implantofix port and replace it with a brand new one! Samuel was up at 4:00 am (a bit of anxiety maybe), and we headed down to Children's at 6:00 with positive attitudes and confidence in the Word of God that promises health, healing, and life in abundance!

 Cheeeeeeez :)

 Toolin' around the reception room

 

Upon arrival, we were notified that 2 emergency appendectomies had to be placed ahead of us "in line", so we ended up waiting around until around 11:30 to begin the procedure. Fortunately, this gave both Daddy + Samuel an opportunity to relax, play games, watch TV, and most importantly...NAP!

Getting garbed up in the comfy PJ's

 Ready for his close-up ;)

Sooooo kissable - and Mommy takes FULL advantage!

 Headed to the TOY ROOM to pick out his surprise for being such a brave boy!

 Oh yeah...oh yeah...take your pick!

(Samuel got a car today - shock, I know)

Opening his new cool kid car

Listening to Casting Crowns on his super cool Crammer (THANKS to Uncle Michael + Aunt Zara!)

Daddy playing w/ the Crammer ;)

His puppy, "V", got an anesthesia mask, too - lol

TV time pre-op........

Lead to nap time pre-op :)

Surgery went well. It took a little bit longer than expected because the doctor found the original catheter was placed too close to Samuel's collar bone (which may have been part of the reason why it eroded so quickly). After moving that, all else went smoothly and the doctor was very pleased with the outcome. Samuel recovered wonderfully and was quite happy to finally get his grape popsicle :)

Daddy + a smiley face bandage...life doesn't get much better ;)

Mmm, finally something to drink after almost 11 hours....

Feeling much better

Ahh, the purple popsicle (Daddy moved his "Implantofix" sticker from bandage to forehead...for kicks, haha)

See? Purple (heehee)

HOMEWARD BOUND! xo

Treatment Update

March 23 was Daddy's first exposure to the Hem/Onc Clinic in person; however, it was a nice quick visit since all we had to do was access Samuel's port for lab work then GO HOME! All in all, great day :)

This week's treatment was a bit more, um, "eventful".

When accessing Samuel's port for the first round of his treatment cycle, the quick entry worked great, but Samuel began screaming in pain as soon as Nurse Morgan injected the sodium chloride into his IV in order to clean out his port catheter. It turned out that Samuel had a significant tear in his catheter tubing which caused leakage of the fluid into his internal tissue, etc. (ie. "OUCH").

We were sent down to Interventional Radiology for a special dye scan to determine the location of the leak + to provide the docs with details so they could make a decision about repairing or replacing the port entirely. Ultimately, they determined the entire port needed to be replaced and rescheduled the beginning of Samuel's next treatment cycle until next Monday because the medications would be too harsh to inject intravenously in his arm. We were scheduled for surgery on Wednesday and sent home to hang out 'til then.

While the initial burning sensation was extremely painful for Samuel, he recovered very quickly from the episode, and we had a great day Monday and Tuesday playing outside (playground and tennis lessons!) and getting ready for Wednesday's excitement.

!!!!DADDY'S HOME!!!!

Okay, there are definitely NO words to describe how excited we are to welcome Daddy home from his honorable tour of duty serving a greater good + fighting for freedoms of all kind. Many hours were spent cutting + pasting + drawing huge poster signs to celebrate his return, and we could barely contain ourselves on March 22 when we got to travel to Dayton, Ohio and pick him up!

Treatment Update...etc.

Apologies for such a lag in updates! Lots of life that could be potential excuses, but we'll sum up the past few weeks of regular treatment then continue w/ more detailed updates :)

Treatment on March 8 went well...in this case, "No news is good news" would be quite appropriate. We also learned that in between "cycles" of treatment we will have 1 week w/ no drugs (only lab work) + 1 week FREE (no clinic visit at all!). That was exciting news of course, especially considering the timing was perfect with DADDY'S RETURN (more on that in a minute!).

March 15 treatment again went smoothly, and we were excited to share our news that it would be our VERY LAST clinic visit before DADDY'S RETURN (can you tell we were a wee bit excited about that too?!?).

Of note in treatment, however, is the awesome discovery that short + sweet is the best way to handle any anxiety or fears Samuel had about needles or bandages. We'd started just "getting it over with" instead of trying to coax the whole process along...which was becoming VERY tedious + seemed to only build Samuel's tension. We're LOVING the new "ba-da bing, ba-da boom" handling because it has definitely left much less of a traumatic imprint in Samuel's mind, and he recovers SO quickly from each step that he hardly even worries about it anymore - PRAISE GOD!!!!

Wisdom of a 4 year-old

Mom: "I love waking up in the morning and eating pancakes."
Samuel: "Yeah, Mom. Cause that's what pancakes are all about."

....AMEN.

A New Deal

So, my dear Samuel and I stayed up a bit later than Miss Trinity this evening to have a little one-on-one hangout session. We discussed the day's events and tomorrow's activities over fresh salads - Samuel's with "pink" dressing (aka raspberry vinaigrette) + Mom's with "white" (aka blue cheese), largely because we had both used up the "orange" one (roasted red pepper).

We discussed how Samuel had decided he does NOT like getting his tube "popped on"; and that he is very scared to go down there again to have that done. At this point, he wanted to know again why we have to keep going down there "every day" (toddler reality); so I reiterated that we are going to the Children's place every week for the rest of the year so that he can get his special medicine. When he said again how much he was afraid of getting his tube popped on, I pointed out that of course he had a choice, but the only other alternative was getting poked with a needle every week - and the nurses + I had figured he would much rather NOT do that, so they gave him the port instead.

Needless to say, Samuel agreed that a port was definitely a better choice! We talked about what we would do in the morning to make sure I put enough "lotion" (EMLA cream that numbs the skin over the port area) on his port so that he wouldn't feel any stingy pains, just maybe the pushing/pressure feeling. Of course, Samuel made sure that I understood I shouldn't put TOO much on or else it would get all over the place and leak out from under the "paper" (press + seal wrap we put over the cream so that it doesn't rub off - or get all over his t-shirt).

We also agreed that after he gets his tube popped on, he will put one of the big bandages on Mommy's chest, too; and then he can take it off of me all by himself so he can see that it won't hurt me. (We also practiced putting on + taking off bandages this weekend, and I'm believing we're making progress on that traumatic front).

So, the deal is on. Mommy will be his patient, and we'll both be brave together to prove that we can have a great time on our trips to the Children's place and no longer need to be scared of any part of our standard procedure.

THANK YOU for being in agreement with us in prayer about all this! He was so much more calm + relaxed tonight before bed (which, by the way, he declared himself to be ready for + kindly informed me that we could "talk about this some more in the morning" because he was tired of talking - haaaa!). Man, I love him. Too funny.

Thank YOU...

We just wanted to post a special note for all of you who are reading or following our little adventure... 

Your prayers are deeply felt, and they are manifesting in so many miracles along the way. We don't doubt one bit that your love + support of Samuel (and all of us) is precisely why we are all doing as well as we are. God has been so good to give us such a wonderful circle of friends + family, and we are beyond grateful to Him - and grateful especially to each of you. We pray that you are being blessed in your own lives, and we are honored to have you in ours. 

THANK YOU so very much... have a beautiful, blessed weekend!