Day 1 of Radiation: Not Without Complications

Chase and I both stayed up far too late last night (1:00 am).  I was writing his blog and he was playing around with his new phone.  Naturally, I tried to blame keeping me up so late on him, but he called me on it.  The boy is getting wise to my tricks.  Oh well.  Since we went to bed late, we tried our best to sleep in today.  For the record, he succeeded far better than I did.  Unfortunately, I recalled that he was supposed to have an appointment today with his pain specialist this morning, so I had to cut my beauty rest short to call and cancel his appointment.

He first visited this specialist about about two weeks prior to coming to the ER last week.  I can't say how large that tumor may have been at that point, but there was a little part of me that felt slightly vindicated telling them the source of his pain had been found.  If that's wrong, then please pardon me. However, I think Chase feels vindicated.  I get the sense that the previous doctors and physical therapists weren't taking his protests of pain quite seriously.

But I digress...the woman I spoke with was understandably shocked when I told her that a tumor was found as the cause of his pain and that it was cancerous. She asked how we found out and I explained that we ended up going to the emergency room and had an MRI on the same day that her office had also scheduled one.  She wished him well and thanked me for letting them know.  What I'm curious about is if he or any of the other doctors, once they find out, will request to see any of his MRI scans for themselves.

Oh, and I'd like to thank all of the nurses out there (some of them former students) for answering my question regarding the blood draws and why Chase had to be stuck instead of using his existing IVs.  I really appreciate the clarification.

And I'm also happy to report that today there were NO problems going "potty".  Yay!!

While we waited for 2:30 to roll around (radiation time), Rick drove up to the hospital for a visit.  I had not seen him since Saturday, so it was really nice to have him here for the afternoon.  And I earned a new nickname from him - bell huey.  If you have no idea what a bell huey is, then hopefully the picture will be a huge clue. Pay special attention to what it's doing.

Think about it...get it?  If you guessed "helicopter mom" then DING, DING, DING!  Yep, my husband just loves giving me lovely nicknames.  It's part of his charm :-)  But you know what?  I'm probably one of the BEST bell huey's out there!!  I just hover from a safe distance.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Chase was complaining of some eye pain.  Colleen, the head Aflac nurse, came by the room around 1:00 pm and said that, just as a precaution, someone from opthalmology would be coming by to check his eyes.  They showed up a few minutes later and proceeded to dilate his eyes.  Now, I wish I would've taken a picture, but I didn't.  So, please just imagine Chase with his glasses kind of resting down his scrunched up nose, holding his new phone at arms length trying to focus without much success since his eyes were blurry.  The poor thing kind of reminded me of an old man who refuses to acknowledge that his vision has deteriorated.  No offense to old men with poor vision, but it was a little humorous.

He didn't have to struggle long because it was time for radiation.  We once again went down the l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g underground tunnel between Egleston and the Winship Cancer Institute.  I'll have to take a picture of it tomorrow if I can remember because it's actually impressive.   Anyway, once we reached radiology, we were told that it would take about 45 minutes.  Apparently, the first day is the longest because they have to take a series of X-rays, which I wasn't aware of.

Well, as past history has indicated, nothing EVER really goes smoothly for him.  Today was no exception.   They managed to take all of the X-Rays (6 total) and then the equipment failed.   Of all of the radiology labs they have, and there are MANY, the one he was in failed.  Winship is a busy, busy place, so he had to be placed back in his wheel chair and brought back to the waiting room until they could either get the machine working or find another available room.  He looked utterly exhausted after that first part of the session.  The table he was on appeared to be about as uncomfortable as they come. Frankly, I was really worried about his neck and his incision.  He seemed to soldier through it all okay though.  If it were me, I would have been a whining mess!  Finally, they switched rooms, but everything needed to be re-calibrated, which took time.

The "command center" for his radiation lab was actually pretty cool.  Again, no pics but maybe I can sneak some.  I'm not allowed in, but I looked from outside the curtain.  They had several monitors set up and two of them were cameras into the room itself so I could see him on the table. Another was a picture of his spine.  There were three technicians for him and they could communicate with each other as they made many, many, many adjustments to him.   One of the three kept running back and forth between the room and the command center.  If that's what she does all day, then no wonder she was skinny as a rail.

By the time the whole process was done, it was well past 4pm!!  Not the 45 minutes that we thought we were going to be over there.  Chase seemed to take it all in stride.  He was completely wiped out though, but I couldn't tell you if it was the radiation or being on that awful table that did it to him.  Before we left Winship, I asked what they specifically scanned on him.  I thought they might avoid the stitches area since the skin is tender and radiation can aggravate the skin.  Nope.  They scanned him from brain to the bottom of his spine.  Wow!

Back in his room, Chase got into bed, ate some grits and a chocolate protein bar and then slept and slept and slept.  Rick and I went downstairs for a late lunch/early dinner so he could have a quiet room.  Chase pretty much slept until his Dad arrived and then woke up to chat a while.  We've watched some TV tonight, he's had a snack and he's been back on his phone again.

Right now it's almost midnight, the lights are out, I'm typing this blog and he's over in his bed still talking to me.  No matter how many times I tell him to go to sleep.  And just when I thought he might be drifting off, his nurse has now arrived to take his vitals!!  Argh!  Oh well.  At least we'll get to sleep an hour earlier tonight.

We didn't get a chance to speak with any of his oncologists today, so I'm hoping to speak with them tomorrow to see if they have any kind of game plan in mind.  Until then, thank you for the continued prayers and support.  They're uplifting and mean so much!

God Bless!!