Maintenance Month 6

Today was Charlie's 6th maintenance chemo treatment. We went into the hospital about an hour before, had breakfast and then went up to clinic. Chad, Daniel and Charlie all have that lingering cold, congestion and cough so we sat in the "sick" waiting area. They try to separate the children who have bugs so the ones with low ANC's won't be as exposed. These maintenance appointments are usually fairly quick. We talk to Dr. Albano for a bit, voice any questions or concerns, get more scripts if we need them and then wait for the nurse. Sally, the nurse, comes in, preps the chemo called vincristine, and sets up her supplies for the port access. She sticks him, draws blood, pushes in the chemo slowly and then takes the butterfly needle out. If all goes well the procedure part takes all of 10 mins. We cheated a little this time and gave Charlie his prescribed Valium dose about 2 hours before his port was accessed. IT WAS GREAT! He whimpered a bit when we asked him to take off his shirt, but then he sat very still and he did not cry when he received his "tubies." Chad and I were both pleasantly surprised. Usually it takes two of us to calm/hold/distract him enough to be accessed, but this time he simply sat in my lap and Chad and Daniel watched. Charlie was feeling so good after treatment that Chad dropped him off at school for the afternoon so I could get some work done. This evening the weather was so nice out that Charlie wanted to go outside and play. As you can see from the pic below Chemo is a side conversation to his life of play. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Charlie in his football gear playing after Chemo
oh and his ANC was 1240