Day 8

Good Evening...

Just a final note before I go to bed tonight. Katelyn and Karly arrived tonight by car (thank you sarah h. for driving them and for bringing our car) and the Uys will visit tomorrow. It was so nice to have our family back again – the first time we’ve been together since we were whisked off on the air ambulance 10 days ago. Thank you Mel and LaDonna for looking after them for us – they loved being with you guys.

I went for a walk through the park with my brother today. I told him how much I’ve loved being with Sam 24/7 this week. It hasn’t been an easy week, but it has been wonderful to see our son rise to every challenge he faced.

The nurse and porter came to get Sam today for his procedures. His hair was still wet and the smell of shampoo was in the room. His nurse, Binh, one of his favorites, said, "Wow Sam, you're always so clean. Do you just like being clean every day? Most kids just sit in bed for days." Sam said, "Actually its my Dad... he drags me into the shower room every single day!" Binh said, "Well, that's good because I don't like stinky patients!"

Today we went down to the treatment room for his LP and Bone Marrow Biopsy/Aspiration and he leaned up on his bed and asked the nurses,
“Why did Tigger stick his head in the toilet?”
They asked, "Why?" as they adjusted their surgical tools...
“He was looking for Pooh!”
and then he laughed aloud and the nurses and doctors chuckled.

A few minutes later he was out cold and they were inserting a needle into his spine and injecting chemo drugs. What gives an 11 year old such a love of life in the face of such adversity? What a gift we’ve been given with our son Sam. We’re thankful for every day we have with him, even the hard days…

Good night.

Ger

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Good morning. Here's what we read this morning together with Sam before our busy day.

Philippians 4 - The Message

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. Its wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious - the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

This was great for us to read today because here's what our night looked like:

8pm - Sam is ready for bed
8:30pm - Sam feels lousy, really lousy
9:00pm - I go ask the nurse for some gravol
9:15pm - Sam has to down 40mg of liquid gravol, doesn't flinch - "How is it?" I ask, "Tastes like lousy medicine."
9:30 - still can't sleep so we read the joke book aloud for 30 minutes and have a few chuckles
10:00pm - lights out
11:00pm - Nurse comes in and checks vitals (we both wake up)
12:00pm - Nurse comes in and checks vitals then re-attaches IV to Sam’s central line (VAD) – we both wake up, I re-attach the central line to Sam’s shirt
12:30am – IV has an air bubble, alarm sounds, I get up, look at the meter and call the nurse
1:00am – Vital signs – I wake up again, Sam sleeps through it – I’m wide awake now and can’t sleep… lie in bed, listening to the machine and think about Sam…I fall asleep about 2:15am
3:00am – Nurse comes in to take blood work to prep for tomorrow’s procedures – I get up and watch
5:00am – Nurse comes in to attach the platelet transfusion to the IV pole – I stay awake because there’s a 15 min window to notice an allergic reaction – the nurse stays and watches too – Sam sleeps
7:00am – I get up and go take a shower, phone home, go check on Sam
8:00am – Debbie comes to the hospital
8:15am – We both meet with the Fellow-Oncologist for 45 minutes
9:00am – I take Sam and we do the shower/hair washing routine
10:00am – New IV with ondansetron (anti-nausea drug)
11:00am – Go downstairs for a lumbar puncture and bone marrow biopsy
12:00 – Take Sam back upstairs and eats lots of pizza for lunch
1:00 – Sam gets Danourubicin IV Push and Vincristine (chemotherapy) and prendizone and ritidine and Ger's brother Phil watches...
3:00 pm - Sam throws up all the pizza, reacting to the chemo
4:00 pm - Sam sleeps
6:00pm - Sam says a big hello to his sisters
8:00pm - Sam goes to sleep...

And that’s what our last 24 hours looks like at BC Children’s Hospital.

And that’s why this passage means so much to us today…

Thanks for your prayers…

Ger

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. Its wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.