Friday, September 26, 2008

Ball Of Transfusion

Only one more day of radiation!

Today's treatment was smooth and simple. Arlene, our Child Life friend, gave Pablo an end-of-week reward: homemade yellow Play-Doh! He loves it. We were out of there in record time—45 minutes. The treatment was so fast, we left CHLA before Pablo's blood labs were complete.

On the way home, Jo Ann and Pablo dropped me at our new, still-under-construction HQ on Sunset. They were home by 9 a.m. At 10, Sally from the Radiation Oncology clinic called my mobile phone to say Pablo's lab report was in, and to bring him back to CHLA for a blood transfusion. Not a surprise. In fact, while Pablo was in the zapping chamber, we went to the blood clinic to verify the number of directed donor pints we had in stock for Pablo.

Before packing Pablo back into the car and heading back to the hospital, Jo Ann slathered lidocaine cream on the skin above his chest port (they had just de-accessed the port at 8:45 a.m.), covered it with Saran Wrap (a state of the art medical supply), and made a calorie-packed lunch. They swung by to see me at our new building at 3801 Sunset Boulevard, then made their way back to 4650 Sunset Boulevard where a pint of blood labeled with Pablo's name was hanging on an I.V. pole awaiting his arrival.

The transfusion should be complete by around 4 p.m. Pablo will be tired when he comes home. Hopefully, we will all have a nice, chilled out evening at home while Grady tries out for the freshman basketball team at St. Francis.

I'll full you in on G's tryout and any P developments tonight or first thing in the morning.

1 comment:

John Lewis said...

Hi guys! Just got you link from the Wilms-Kids List Serv (a great resource, made up by families all over the world stuggling against Wilms). Our daughter Emily was diagnosed two years ago when she was nine and is still fighting. She will be entering her third clinical trial in a few weeks. I just wanted to let you know you are not alone. I'll head over to UO this weekend to pick up the album. Stay positive and strong. John Lewis