Treatment Day

Treatment day. We had been waiting for awhile for this day, but now that it was here, I wasn’t completely ready. Woke up at 5:30am to get to the hospital by 6:30am.  Waking up that early should be outlawed. Just sayin’. Again, they don't actually wheel him back until closer to 7:30. But we got him dressed in a little hospital gown we were making silly faces with filters (cause he was a little grumpy without his milk) and they brought him cars and ramps to play with while we waited and went over information with several people. When it was time to go back, only one of us could go back in the operating room while they gave him the medicine to go to sleep, so they could then place the IV and all the other necessary things for surgery. I let Jason go. I didn't want to break down in the room.  Jason had to put on white scrubs and a blue shower cap type hat and got to hold Quin as they walked to the operating room.  They looked so sweet walking back.  Jason was just in the room while they gave him the medicine so it wouldn't traumatize him being away from mom or dad. I am so very glad they do this.  Once he was asleep (only took about five minutes) Jason came out of the room and we went to the cafeteria for breakfast.  The time actually went by fairly quickly and I was quite surprised. Before we knew it, they called us to let us know he was in recovery.  When we got there, he actually started waking up a bit.  They had put a brace on his right leg (the side they went into the artery) to ensure that he couldn't bend his leg.  He needed to lay flat for about four hours to allow his artery toheal enough. He wasn't supposed to wake up quite yet, but the sweet young nurse (I think was new) didn't stay on top of his meds quick enough. But it was ok and they administered the medicine necessary for him to stay asleep and all was well. He had a few bouts of moving a little bit, but we were right there by his side the whole time.  We found that he calmed down every time Jason or I had our hand on his chest or his back. So one of us kept our hand on him the whole time. He actually turned over into his tummy a little more than halfway through the four hours but the nurse said it was ok. Again, the time went by a lot quicker than expected.  The doctor came and talked with us to let us know the surgery went well overall but there was a small hiccup if you will.  There is normally a vein that will branch off the main artery in your head that will lead to the eye area. When we talked on Friday, he let us know that there is about 3% of patients that don't have that vein the right place and it's a little further up, but that he would still be able to complete the treatment. Well Quin just wanted to be EXTRA special and didn't have that vein in either of the above mentioned areas.  But the doctor was still able to find where he needed to go and was able to give the treatment. We were very grateful and thanked the doctor for not giving up. He said that next time, he will know exactly where to go so it will go a little quicker. Since he had to be in there a little longer they had to give him more of the vasoconstrictors as well as having him exposed to a little more radiation (which allows him to see where he is going with the catheter) but was still within the safe zones. So all was a success!!
When it was time for the last dose of medicine, Jason went to the cafeteria to get Quin some warm milk in his "bobba" so we had that ready for him when he woke up.  Worked like a charm! We learned our lesson from Thursday when he screamed for about an hour and a half after waking up. He had so many meds still pumping through his little body and he was just so wiped out.  Jason and I needed lunch so we went to TOGO's. It was only 15 miles away and yet it took almost 40 minutes to get there. I will never understand LA traffic. No matter the time of day, there is always traffic. Cruise control is probably NEVER used there.  It's insane.  We finally got our lunch and was trying to rouse Quin a little bit, but he was just not able to fully pull out of his slump.  We got back to our room and just rested.  Quinners would have little bursts of energy and then just want to lay down a bit.  His face was a little swollen and had a few red marks around his eyes. We were a little concerned that his right eye was swollen when it was his left eye that received treatment. We called the hospital and talked to a doctor and he said that it was probably because they had to give him more vasoconstrictors than usual to find the right vein and that the  blood flow wasn’t quite normal yet.  He said as long as he still isn't swollen in the morning we would be fine.  After face-timing the girls and talking with grandma, we went to bed. Our flight to come home was at 9:06am, which meant another early morning for us. Yay, my favorite (Ugh). Quin slept great through the night and woke up a happy camper! The swelling in his face went down and he was back to his normal self!! So part of the check out process for being able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house, was that we needed to clean the bathrooms, strip the sheets off the beds and wipe all the surfaces. Fair enough, but we needed to allow enough time to do so. Then, TRAFFIC. Again, the airport was about 20 miles away but it took way longer than you'd think it should take at 6 in the morning. Everything went smooth at the airport other than our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes. But we made it up in the air. I think this was only my second time flying on Southwest and the planes are pretty basic.  We have been spoiled being able to fly on Delta (hence the reason I work for them) the planes are a lot nicer and have a lot more features. You know your kids are spoiled when your two year old points to the back of the seat and says "show?" But the Southwest planes don't have the screens in the back of the seats. So Quin was trying to bring down the tray table to find it! :')  It was hilarious! He finally settled for the iPad and then moved on to stickers. He then took a little nap and then we landed! We were so happy to be back in Utah and were planning to go get the girls from Jason's parents house. But when we left through security we saw two cute girls holding "welcome home" signs and my mom and dad with balloons! BEST surprise EVER! Quin gave the girls big hugs and was so happy to see his buddies again.  I forgot to mention before that Quin would say he wanted to go home several times while we were there.  It was so cute.  We are so very grateful for all the prayers on our behalf. We have certainly felt them and I know that there were others so close to us on the other side and was doing their very best to make things go smoothly for us. We have been so very blessed.  Quins next eye exam will be December 20 and then based off what the exam results are, he will have his second round of chemo on the 21.  I will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible with new information as it happens. Thank you again for all your well wishes and prayers.