Cycle 1, Day +9: Doing Well...

Steven is feeling really well. Last night Sean was visiting and he and Steven were playing darts and wrestling a little-- I was in fear of Sean accidentally yanking on Steven's central line, the catheter that goes into his chest where he gets his chemo.

Today I brought regular clothes in for Steven-- he put them on after his bath and greeted his hospital teacher Miss Brooke in the library today. He's using one of the computers in the library right now.

We'll be heading back to his room in a few minutes to meet with someone from behavioral medicine who teaches self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques to kids like Steven who are deathly afraid of needles (and tape). They seem to think he's a good candidate for learning how to do it, some children they've taught manage to have their lumbar punctures and bone marrow harvests with no anesthesia.

We're ready for almost anything to help-- his last IV required two nurses and four adults to hold him down while he screamed as loud as he could.

The chaplain visited today with Steven for an hour or so-- since we've been in Memphis our usually very easy-going boy has been prone to unexpected and severe outbursts of anger, directed mostly at Doug, but me also, Doug's mother, and even his teacher once, all this very out-of-character for him. We spoke with someone from behavioral medicine to try and rule out some sort of change in his brain, as the frontal lobes where Steven's tumor was are responsible for inhibiting bad behavior, but after speaking to them, they feel it's not changes due to tumor or brain injury, more likely stress and the effects of feeling sick for so long.

Steven will probably be an inpatient until at least Friday, although he's feeling so well right now it's hard to see why he needs to be in the hospital. His blood counts are still low, although they went from zero yesterday to 100 today. They won't let him go home until they're at least 500, maybe more, and until they culture his blood again to verify no more bacteria.

Thank you for all the suggestions for dry hands-- I'm heading to the drugstore today to see what I can find.

- Kathleen