Day 8: My favorite Superhero
Friday was Day 8 of treatment and Elliott had was a bit more fussy and clingy today, but did great. It was superhero day at their school today, so I found a superman shirt so Elliott could participate too. After all, he is a super kid! Laurel is a superkid too. I took a photo on my phone of Laurel in her superwoman shirt and showed it to Elliott this morning and he smiled. :-)
We thought Elliott was due to have a bone marrow analysis today to let us know how the treatment is going as I mentioned in my post yesterday, but we found out this morning that the analysis will only happen on Day 28. He started out the day with a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to inject Methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug. They did test some spinal fluid and there were no traces of leukemia, which is great because that means it has not spread to his spine nor brain and will likely not spread to those areas. Following the lumbar puncture, he had IV injections of two other chemo drugs, Vincristine and Daunorubicin.
Day 8: Being silly with Grandpa
My dad spent the day at the hospital with me while William went home to get rest, so Elliott had a chance to make music with his food tray and act silly with my dad. He seem to enjoy that. For the rest of the afternoon, he was dosing in and out of sleep. I tried a few times to put him back in the crib to nap, but he cried each time I tried to put him down. This is the first time he has cried since he has been in the hospital, so I was a bit concerned for a while, but I think he just needed some extra cuddling after all of today's activity.
William's parents arrived today, so he got to see more familiar faces. I anticipate the weekend will be pretty low key. We would have probably been able to go home today, but the oncologist recommended Elliott get his mediport put in before we go home. A mediport is a device that is implanted just below the skin near the collar bone that will allow him to get his chemotherapy treatments through the port instead of having to poke him each time. Right now he has a central line that they use to give him his medications, but he likes to pull on the tubing, not to mention central lines are only temporary and can't be used long term, so the mediport will be a much better option. He is scheduled to get the mediport on Monday morning and he can hopefully go home on Tuesday. Since we have extra help in town, I am going to take the opportunity to run errands and get the house prepared for when Elliott comes home. It will be nice to have everyone back home again!