First we get up at the crack of dawn (6am) to leave to drive an hour up to Primary Childrens Hospital. I should really be thankful (and I am) that we are so close. Other families travel from out of state every time their kid needs a sclerotherapy treatment so we really do have it easy.
We get to the hospital and walk by the fountains. He really wanted a picture here.
We wait in the waiting room for a while and then they call us back to another waiting room. Here they check his vitals.
He also gets to watch a movie. We have waited in this room for three hours before. Luckily this time it was only about an hour.
This is how we sit as he gets his IV. He hangs his hands over my shoulders and closes his eyes. He doesn't even flinch when he gets his IV. He actually looks forward to it, the crazy kid.
Look how happy he is to have his IV in. That means he gets to choose from the prize basket which I forgot to get a picture of.
Now we wait some more. When it is his turn they give him some "loopy" medicine so he isn't scared of going into the treatment room. This medicine (Versed) makes him kind of out of it and tired but it isn't the sedation.
They wheel us both into the treatment room, me holding him. Here is where they put the sedation drug in his IV. Within 30 seconds he is out. They transfer him to the treatment table.
And hook him up to the machines.
Then I leave and go hang out for about 30-45 minutes while they do the sclerotherapy. They basically give him one big shot right in his lip. It is a scarring agent, actually one of the ingredients in chemotherapy. They hope is that it will attack all of his tissue and create some scar tissue thereby shrinking the size of his lip.
Here is after the treatment when he is waking up.
He is always sick for the rest of the day of his treatment due to the injection medication.
He usually barfs the whole way home. But then he wakes up the next day like nothing every happened!
This first picture is before we started treatments:
And this one is after two treatments before the third:
The difference is small but I can definately see it. Look at the height and fullness of his upper left lip. Three treatments down! I'm not really sure how many are left but hopefully we are all done by the end of the year!
9 comments:
wow!!! As sad as he looks in those last pics, you will be glad you documented it!! I can FOR SURE see a difference!! Caleb is so sweet. I miss him all the time.
i can see a difference too! brave brave boy.
That picture of him all snuggled up to you is so sad, yet so sweet! :) I can definitely see a difference and I'm so happy that it's working! What a tough kid!
I can see a difference. His lip doesn't go as low, definitely smaller.
Such a brave kid. I am excited the treatment is working.
What a sweet, brave little boy!!
I really miss him! I can see a difference in his lip.
I like it when he is "lights out" and snuggled against you, but it also makes me want to cry that he has to go through that too. Brynley's preschool pics are sure cute!
Tell Caleb I think he's the man. Seriously, to know what's coming and to still be brave and go through with it- he da man. I notice a difference, too.
He is sure a cute kid! There is a big difference, and I hope it continues to go well. Wish I could be there for the piano recital too, he is so funny! I am sure it will go smoothly this time though.
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