Admission Day

Well it's time for round 4! We had an echo at 9:00. To make a long story short I got there at 9:40. They still let us have an echo. Neat. Critter gets an echo and EKG to check out how his heart is. Some of the drugs that he is receiving can have severe effects on his heart. That's why this type of cancer is so dangerous to the elderly. Most of the elderly can not handle the treatment. Their hearts are not strong enough. Anyway, every time Critter starts a treatment with these drugs he gets an echo to make sure there has not been any damage and to make sure his heart is healthy enough to have another treatment. Results were good. It was a real struggle to keep him happy though. He woke up at 7:30 and had some water. He has to be NPO (no food) for his LP later. This is a picture of his EKG.

After that we went to clinic where he despises the paper on the exam table. He always destroys this before we even see anyone. Then the nurse comes in and draws some labs and the docs come in and discuss treatment and sign consent forms. I don't remember what time my appointment was there. I was probably late, oh well.

After that we went to the RTU. We got there at about 12:oo. Our appointment was for 12:30. Critter was pretty hungry by then and getting tired since 12 is nap time. Once there I was informed that they were running about an hour behind. We got toys and settled in. By 1:00 Critter lost it. He threw a temper tantrum and ended up crying and throwing toys at me. Just when he might settle down the anesthesiologist came in to get us. Whew put the kid out! He got an LP, bone marrow aspirate and bone marrow biopsy all to make sure there is still no trace of cancer. They usually give him a drug to help him come out of the anesthetic but I didn't ask for it (assumed they would, note to self, never assume) and we had an anesthesiologist we haven't had before so he didn't give it. That means Critter woke up MAD! After a raging temper tantrum in the recovery room I carried him through the hospital with no shirt on kicking and screaming up to our room. I'm sure they were happy to see us! I ordered him some food and me and the nurse watched in awe as he stuffed sandwich in his mouth.

So here we are again. Our room is huge!!! Much bigger than the others we have had. (I was told we have moved to the suite). And the shower is HOT! the water was always cold in the other rooms. So far A pod is the best! I do miss Sharon the woman who cleans B pod. She is really good but all in all I guess we can be happy here. Chemo was started at 10:30 Wednesday night. Just the Ara-C right now but we get some new interesting drugs this time. Wish us luck!