Another day

Nathan had to get a blood transfusion today. It was his first. His blood count was a little low for radiation. As radiation is being done, the doctors want to keep his blood at a certain count. The more oxygen in the blood the better the radiation works, so a blood transfusion had to be done.

I was there with Nathan, Peyton is in Warren and Sam's hard at work. Of course I had to sit down with the doctors and hear all of the risks involved and sign a consent form. I then sent up a few quick prayers and the blood transfusion started. I'm extremely thankful that Nathan didn't have a reaction to the blood he received (so far at least). During the transfusion they really wanted Nathan to be pretty still and honestly Nathan did pretty good. The transfusion lasted 2 hours and although we couldn't convince him to lay in the bed for more than 5 minutes, he did stick to one play area on the floor for the majority of the time.

His radiation has been moving along too, so far I haven't noticed any redness on him or anything, but the doctors said that the side effects are definitely coming. His doctor told me point blank that he's going to make our child very cranky and irritable over the next month. He said we can expect Nathan's skin to get red and sore and because the tumor is so close to his throat, eventually it's going to hurt to swallow.

Nathan had two nosebleeds this weekend on the side of the tumor. Thankfully they were minor and the doctor said there's nothing to worry about as long as they stopped within 5 - 10 minutes of starting. He also has to get a shot in his leg every night, Sam and I have to give it, one of us usually holds him while the other administers the shot. He's been taking it pretty well but on Saturday he went crazy. He was trembling pretty bad and crying and it was extremely hard to give it to him. It took us over an hour and both of our hearts hurt over it. We didn't want it to be a punishment so we didn't discipline. We explained we had to give it but we were patient. He's never reacted this way to it, he was literally terrified and we don't see terror that often in Nathan so we were really patient with him. He had the same reaction to it on Sunday. Right after the shot he's fine but trying to get it is a headache. On the days he has radiation we can give it to him while he's sedated but on the days he doesn't then we have to give it to him ourselves.

The team of doctors is huge at University Hospitals and they're all so great. One approached me today to see how Nathan has been doing at home. She then told me she understands what we're going through because her 20 month old daughter has to be sedated a lot as well. I didn't pry because she was really trying to comfort me at the time and though she mentioned her situation I got a sense she only brought it up to let me know she can relate but not to discuss it necessarily but I did ask her how she was doing. The fact that she has a 20 month old that is going through sedation stuck out to me. I'm learning that children aren't sedated all the time unless there's an issue. I have no clue what her situation is but judging by the way she spoke she understands our plight on a personal level. You never know what people are going through. Here this lady is working on our son and her baby is going through a situation too.

And I want to share something else with you. When the actual Rhabdomyosarcoma diagnosis came back we were told by the doctors that there was a 65% survival rate involved with this cancer I remember crying after the doctor told us that but Sam didn't. And after the doctors left Sam was pumped. You see when the doctors told us that I heard, even though he didn't state it, that 25% don't survive, but Sam only heard that 65% do and I remember him relying on that information alone that day and he was actually happy about it. The fact of the matter is some people do survive cancer. I love our main nurse practitioner, not only is she very positive but she's been doing her job for over 25 years. I'm sure she's seen her share of losses but she's not shy about telling me about the success stories she's witnessed. Every nurse in the ICC (Ireland Cancer Center) have been there doing this for over 25 years and oh the stories they can tell. I still don't know what Nathan's situation is going to be but we have so much hope.

God Bless