Radiation Day One

Well, this morning at roughly 6:00am, JT began Phase II. He awoke in an absolutely foul mood - the anxiety of heading in to the hospital and being accessed via his medi-port had him balled up and crying. After a few moments of Jenn and I trying to break through his wall, I stepped into the next room and pulled out my copy 'Parenting for Dummies'.... Aw, who am I kidding?! I bribed him with a post-therapy Happy Meal. I admit, it I caved. But the stark reality was that we were running out of time to apply Emla (numbing) cream to his port! Drastic times call for drastic measures. I hope this isn't the MO every Monday. But if it is, so be it. Heaven help us when they're not giving out Transformers!

At the hospital, JT was clearly still nervous, but his nurse had some tricks up her sleeve and before long he was accessed and his port was flushed with saline. It really goes without saying, that the accessing is the big thing that makes him the most nervous. After accessing, they can give him sleepy juice for his therapy. The other tough part is waking up. Hopefully, after a week or so, we'll have the drill down so that we have just enough anesthesia to get him in and out in the shortest possible time. In the end the guy was a trooper today. He went under, went in and woke up (albeit grumpy).

It has just occured to me that some of you may not understand what in God's name I'm typing about, ya know, the accessing part. Well, at the risk of repeating myself, nearly two weeks ago JT went in for a procedure to insert a medi-port (see top pic) under his skin just below is left collarbone. The white tube is put into a vein and runs just to the edge of his heart. The theory is that by inserting a needle into this port - just below the skin - one can avoid all the IV sticks. The other aspect is that when it comes to administering chemotherapy by using a port, the dugs are very quickly dispersed with a few heartbeats. Anyhow, putting Emla on the little bump on his chest numbs the skin, so albeit mentally trying on him, there's no "sting" of a needle. The routine during radiation will be that James is pricked (or accessed) by the needle (see pic #2) on Monday and will keep his tube accessed all week. Good for him - he doesn't get pricked everyday; bad for us - he can't get it wet = limited bathing. But you can bet your bottom dollar he'll be getting super-baths on the weekends!

A big part of this all will be simply managing side effects. The anxiety, limited bathing, redness from the bandage over the port....the anesthesia's side effects add to his pre-existing balance challenges, so he was even more wobbly after the simulation and today. The radiation causes fatigue, so not only did he get a "nap" during the treatment, but he left a nice drool puddle on the couch from his big nap this afternoon as well. We also filled a prescription for an anti-nausea medicine today to have on hand. Now, not once in Jenn's pregnancies did she throw up, but nausea was her shadow for the first few months. Try to imagine a six year old deal with the same shadow while pining away for a Happy Meal! Perhaps his love of the Golden Arches will get him through it all!

One down, thirty to go!