Day 446 - Spinal Tap, Clinic and Back Home

Ryan gets what we call an IntraThecal, which is chemo medication injected into the lumbar region of his back.  I shorten it to 'spinal tap', since that makes more sense to most people.  To make things easier, the doctors will put him very lightly to sleep with anesthesia, so he won't move.  And, Ryan loves his anesthesia!  The only bad part is that the procedure was scheduled for 2pm, and since we do anesthesia, he can't have anything to eat or drink before the procedure.  So, he woke up kind of hungry and thirsty, but we had to wait until after the procedure.

We got to the hospital early, and I sat with Ryan doing schoolwork while Patrick and Kathryn went to the cafeteria to get lunch (we just couldn't eat lunch in front of him, when he couldn't have anything).  When the doctors called us back to the procedure room, Ryan was practically skipping to the room, he was so excited!  He climbed up on the gurney, and said "Goodnight family... can we start now?".  Silly boy...

We finished up our trip to Seattle with clinic visit with GI.  Ryan's belly had developed a small abscess where it ruptured earlier.  It 'popped' open last night and had some pus in it, so we cultured the site and covered it with gauze.  No one is too worried about it.  the GI doctors were really happy to see him feeling so good.

After clinic, we got in the car and headed back home...  As I write this, it is about 2am and we are about an hour north of Missoula.  Not sure if we are heading all the way home tonight, or if we'll stop to sleep for s bit.  Knowing us, we'll head the rest of the way home, and get in around 6am, or just in time to see the sunrise.  I am not a night person anymore, so doing this 'all nighter' thing is kind of hard.  Fortunately, I took the first 4 hours, so Patrick is driving the rest of the trip, and he is a night person.

If all goes well, we won't need to go out to Seattle until October.  We'll still have chemo, but we can get it in Great Falls.  I'm just looking forward to a few weeks sleeping in my own be and not driving for hours!

Thank you all for the continued prayers and good thoughts!

Comments

  1. Lois HillJuly 11, 2018 at 6:18 AM

    Fantastic news, that is the kind of trip to the doctors you want to have :) The problems with his belly seem to be ongoing and you just take it in stride!
    But Ryan doesn't get away from school work!!
    I always wanted to drive first when we did all nighters between rodeos, and if John had even a couple hours sleep -- he was ready for the long haul. But then there was nights that I just kept driving!!
    Hope you made it without any problems, get a good night's sleep (or should I say day's)
    LUV U all

    ReplyDelete

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