I know it's been a couple of days between updates...okay,okay,okay - MORE than a couple, but I do want to say upfront that Chase has been doing VERY well.
Yes, Chase did have his first fever spike this past Saturday night, but by Easter Sunday it was over with, which I was very thankful for since he was expecting visitors with Easter dinner on Sunday.
We did have one minor problem that was corrected today. He has this biopatch disc over his central line where it goes into his chest. There has been a blood clot directly on the line and the stitch there once it ceased "oozing", but this past week the biopatch became attached to the clot - not good. The biopatch has to be changed weekly since it slowly releases antibiotics to prevent infection. Sadly, this was Easter Sunday and right as my (Caroline's) parents, a cousin, and William were arriving, that's when they were trying to get the old patch to dislodge. It happened to be a bit painful, too. They kept at it for about five minutes until they finally decided to hold off and just re-bandage it.
Chase really enjoyed having his brother here. I can tell how much they missed each other, which made me even more resolved to get the two of them together for a sleep over in the hospital. After Chase ate some ham and dressing, he, my Dad, and William played a few hands of 5 Card Draw Poker and then William and Chase played a round of Chess - Chase won.
On Monday, the Atlanta Zoo brought by a few animals for the kids at the hospital to view. Chase, unfortunately, couldn't touch them, but since he loves animals, I'm sure he enjoyed getting so close to them regardless.
David reported that Chase only had one additional fever lapse, but it was only 100 degrees F. Since then he hasn't had any other fevers. He has had a slight cough, but it hasn't been persistent. The only other thing that I would say Chase has been complaining about is some pain in his left leg beneath his knee. Since he's had this pain (only when he is in a certain position) for almost a week, they went ahead and did an ultrasound just to make sure there wasn't a blood clot forming. I'm pleased to report that he's okay. It may have just been a swelling of the blood vessel, which can be a temporary side effect, great news.
On to Wednesday...
William is spending the night tonight. This is something that both of them have been looking forward to. It will be the first day that they've spent more than 2 hrs together since Chase's diagnosis. As I type, the two of them have been hanging out in Chase's hospital bed playing Xbox 360, watching "Yes Man!" with a small break in between to go downstairs and get food from the cafeteria.
Oh, and the two of them have been plotting against Rebecca. Fortunately for her, they had her working on the other hall, so Chase and William won't have the chance to attack the poor woman. On our way down to the cafeteria, I looked through the doors at the end of our hallway and noticed Rebecca and Robert speaking with each other and then she was waving with a somewhat devious smile on her face. It took me a second to realize that she was waving at Chase, and when I turned around he was pointing at her with slanted eyes. Chase and William didn't bat an eye before talking about how there was "two" of them against her.
Robert and Rebecca started talking about how they would just wait for Chase to go to sleep and paint his nails purple, put some lipstick on him, and then they'd round up that blond wig they have around here, put it on him, and snap a few choice pictures to post on Chase's carepage.
Let the record show, that I will make SURE my camera batteries are FULL and my memory card EMPTY if the two of them want to arrange for a little late night mayhem against Chase, especially once he gets toward the (final) end of his hospitalization. It will have to be the end, because as Chase has already pointed out to Robert that if he tries anything on him, Chase WILL be back after his week away from the hospital and he won't forget.
Did I say already how much I LOVE the nursing staff here???
That's all for tonight. It may be another couple of days before my next update, but in the meantime, enjoy the new Blue Bunny Blackmail pictures. I took these the other day and used them to bribe Chase. However, he realized he could add some LOLCats titles to them and had a bit of fun adding his own spin to the pictures.
Thank you very much for your continued thoughts and prayers!!
The O'Bannon Family
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