No dull moments

Carter staying cool...

The boy's backyard feast

The Memorial Day holiday threw us off in terms of going into the CHOC Clinic. The hospital gets everyone set up on a schedule to do Broviac dressing changes and cap changes every Mondays. The caps sit at the end of the central line and require weekly changes to prevent clotting and infection. The nurses at the Clinic will not help you with dressing changes; they want the parents to be doing that at home regularly. However, they will do cap changes to the central IV lines on Mondays while you are there. So, since we were lucky enough to be in clinic and the hospital the past few Mondays, we had not had to do cap changes yet. Today was the day. Luckily, Carter is still cooperative for his daily IV flushes, which have become very routine. And the cap changes are just a little more elaborate. Today, he was very patient, and Matt did a great job!

Our family had a good day of hanging out at home, picnicking in the backyard, and playing board games. And Bennett and Matt went down to the pool again this afternoon, and Bennett got to swim and play with some buddies. Our goal for Bennett this summer is to be completely pool-safe. It will be a nice thing to cross off our list of many stresses.

This morning as we were finishing up Carter’s cap changes, Bennett yells from downstairs. He is on the verge of crying and apologizing. He was watching TV, and didn’t make it to the toilet in time... Matt runs downstairs then back upstairs to get towels to clean up. He said, “there is never a dull moment around here.” I was about to say, “they keep us young.” But, in fact, I think they have aged us tremendously over the past 6 weeks! Maybe we’re just getting older and wiser.

Tomorrow, Carter has chemo and lab work at the Outpatient Infusion Center (OPI). Hopefully, everything will go smoothly. We’re also hoping they’ll draw blood again to check his AFP counts. The doctors should be checking it again over the next week or so. We’d love another drop in AFP!