We may be able to handle all these leg pokes after all. We went into the Cancer Center early again today for another set of leg pokes for Nathan's Erwinia L-Asparaginase. Again, we kind of took control from the nurses and worked on Nathan's bandaid coverings ourselves. This morning I put baby lotion on Nathan's legs before I put the bandaids on... y'know, I hate calling these things bandaids as the picture I get in my head is the little strip bandaid with the gauze in the center and why would those be so hard to take off?? These bandaids are actually Tegaderm transparent film dressings. They are about 2.5" by 4" and are a type of Opsite dressing that is all adhesive - no gauze. The idea behind these is to keep the Emla cream in place and keep all of the air off - in order for the Emla to work the site has to be completely sealed.... there I got that out! Anyway..... the baby lotion allowed us to get the dressings (not calling them bandaids anymore) off a little easier. Then the nurses have to clean the area with alcohol and for some reason that annoys Nathan as well. They got that done and then Nathan asked if they could do one needle a time and we all agreed to it. Nathan got the first needle and cried again a little bit as the last of the drug was pushed in. He then got his breathing under control and was ready for the second one. He breathed steady through it all and at the end he told us that it hurt but he did not cry. Tough kid. It was nice that a little later as I was getting Nathan a drink from the refreshment area,nurse Cathy came up to me to let me know that she thought we were doing a wonderful job with Nathan and she thought that we should hear it.
We had to hang out for observation for an hour and then we were free to go. Nathan wanted to go shopping and we agreed that we could go get something but he fell asleep on the way home. We figured that we could change the plan and let Nathan sleep for a bit, let him go to school in the afternoon and then Shelley would take Carter and Nathan shopping... That decision caused a huge issue with Nathan when he woke up and we were at home. It took almost an hour to get him calmed down and back to acting reasonably before he and Shelley headed off for school. He had a good afternoon there and then when it was time to go shopping after school, Carter did not want to go! It is hard to make plans with these guys I tell you! Shelley and Nathan went and had fun anyway, he came back with a nice electronic Pokeball that Carter took a shine to as well.
We went outside after supper to play hockey on the rink. I do not think that will last much longer as we have a few holes in the rink and a nice forecast coming. After hockey we came in for hot chocolate and chips, we watched a bit of a show, and then all three boys went to bed very easily.
Tomorrow will be a bit more of a trying day. They want to take blood from both his port and peripherally to compare the samples and check for the "stringiness" of his blood. He gets both Vincristine and Methotrexate tomorrow as well.
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