June 18, 2009

The picture below is of Gabriel's Port-A-Cath

Whoa,

I hadn't realized the time which has pasted since my last post. In April, Gabriel had two bone marrows. Both results were not clear, one showing he may not have been in remission.

In May, Gabriel had a third bone marrow aspiration and biopsy. They added a biopsy of the bone marrow to hopefully see more clearly what was going on with his bone marrow. For the biopsy they use a special needle, put it in the bone, rotated it a few times, then pulling the needle out with pieces of Gabe's bone the tip. Unfortunately I forgot my camera. The best way to describe what the pieces of bone looked like would be tiny maggots.

This bone marrow's results came back showing Gabriel was in remission!!!! Yay!!!!!! Preparing Gabriel for his last bone marrow was hard. He did not want to do it again. He told me, "Mom, I don't want to go back. I'm already healed." Wow! My son's faith in that moment strengthened my own.

Gabriel again desired more anesthesia when he woke. This time, I was alone and he fought me. I hadn't known his physical strength until that day. He just cried he wanted to go back in the fish room (where they gave the anesthesia) and he wanted to go back to sleep.

More good news. Today Gabriel's port was removed. He is very very excited. Unfortunately, the anesthetic nor sedation helped him wake easy. I'd informed the anesthesiologist and Gabriel's nurse, "If Gabriel does not sleep his 45mins to an hour after a procedure he can be very beside himself, fighting, it is very bad." They decided to give him some extra sedation to keep him sleep longer and make him wake smoother. (Since I was not allowed in the recovery room when he first woke).

Well, they did as they promised and realized my son has a very high tolerance for sedation. He woke 10 minutes after his surgery. It took three nurses to hold him down. When they finally got me his nurse said, "We understand kids can wake up cranky, we didn't know he was that strong." Little did I know, until they woke him, they had strapped him to the bed and gave him a mask to keep him asleep. :(

When they took off the mask to wake him he was still upset, mostly mad he was strapped down. I didn't realize until I lifted his blanket. As soon as I took off his strap he was better. His eyes very dilated, we got some video of him. Hope you enjoy them and get a little laugh. He was funny and very loving.