Delayed Intensification, Part 1

This phase began last week. Last Tuesday we went to the oncologist for Aidan's weekly blood test and checkup. The results of the blood test would tell us if Aidan was strong enough for this, the worst phase of Aidan's chemo treatment plan. The tests came back with the right numbers. So on Wednesday, we got to the hospital at 7am to start an infusion of a new drug. The infusion took a few hours, and then required 4 hours of fluids afterward. During that 4 hours, Aidan got a spinal tap (his 8th since Mar 30th) so they could inject chemo intrathecally (into his spine). In the end we were there for 9 hours. We actually had some fun - I surprised Aidan with a pretty cool Lego set that we worked on most of the day, building the 3 different scenes that could be built with the set.

Orca whale and a cute boy in a hat ;)

Lighthouse Lego set - notice the light on top

While we worked on Legos we made a playlist for Aidan on Spotify. It was fun to listen to his favorite songs and hang out together. He got a really bad headache after his spinal tap, which thankfully was not a spinal headache, but we had to stay a little longer for some IV morphine and monitoring. So he wasn't as happy going home as we had been earlier, but overall the day was much more pleasant than I had expected.

About to be put to sleep for his spinal tap

We had to go back to the hospital on Thursday, Friday, and even Saturday, for injections. The nurses left Aidan accessed, meaning that his port-a-cath has a needle in it with tubing coming out of it. The tubing gets a tegaderm (clear plastic bandage) over it and tape everywhere. It itches and gets in the way, but it makes it very easy for the nurses to clean the tubing and give the injection and let us leave. By Saturday even the short visit was too much for Aidan and he fought everything. It's difficult because I understand his frustration, but I want him to cooperate so that we can get it over with and get home.