A Thck Skin.

What a week we have had! If anyone has ever had a one year old they will understand this completely, Critter is a little ball of energy that no one could harness. He has his own agenda, his own time schedule and also his own central line. The line they have place is not very big, it is maybe 3/16" in diameter and has to separate lines inside of it. Needless to say it's not the strongest thing in the world and Critter uses it to get our attention. If he is done playing or wants us to pick him up he grabs and pulls and bites it until we comply. Even if you are not good at math you have probably solved this equation of trouble and figured that the line breaks.

Over the past week we have seen his line repaired six times, that's right six stinking times and they have only been able to repair it twice without removing his line dressing. For all of you who have never seen a dressing change let me walk you through it.
1. Because he is an infant and he wiggles and pulls and rolls etc. we have to hold him down. We have learned a great technique of wrapping his arms in a blanket and pinning it under his body and then we just hold his legs and steady the rest of him.
2. Remove the old dressing, this requires pulling sticky tape off of tender skin.
3.They clean with an alchol swab three times and then another cleaner
4. You then apply a new dressing.

Normally you should only have to change this once a week or as needed, so normally he is pretty good about only a few tears but after 7 times in a week(twice they did it twice in a day) he is not tolerating it well any more. The worst part for him is the cleaning process, his skin is getting so irritated from all of this it must sting something fierce when they do it.

Children really are amazing and I know why Christ always said to become as little children. Kids have the ability to forgive and love unconditionally, I don't know if I could laugh and play with someone who a half hour ago pinned me down and tortured me for a reason I don't know why. He does it though, he really is an amazing kid. He is strong, determined and loving unconditionally, he is such an amazing example to me on how I need to be. Needless to say even though it doesn't look it he really does have a thick skin.

Jason originally wrote this but I had to add that his bum looks much the same. The chemo causes rashes. We didn't want to post a picture because we might get in trouble for running a porn site. But thanks to Stephanie (Odette's mom) we have amazing road tar (that's what it smells like)! This cream is awesome! Once the chemo stops it will cure the rash completely but for now it keeps it bearable.