Busy Monday…

Carter's fake smile after the days activities

Well, by the end of the day on Sunday when people asked Carter how old he was, he finally got it down that he is TWO! Now, with the celebrations over (for the time being) we started out the week very busy. Carter had a good night sleep and woke up around 6:30am ready to put on his shoes right away and do his early mornings walk around the oncology floor. We think he secretly just wants to greet all the nurses as they are changing shifts and he won’t have to compete with any other patients around. And as usual, he gets his walk going very fast down the hall, and then almost comes to a standstill in front of the nurse’s station waiting to see a familiar face or maybe meet a new friend. He’s got his technique down, and it works!

We had to get some breakfast in Carter right away because he was going to be cut off from eating at 8am due to his CT scan. He ate a few donut holes, some of Mom’s bagel, and some applesauce. At 9am the nurse brought in the oral contrast dye Carter had to drink before having the CT scan. We mixed this with a little apple juice, but ended up having to struggle with Carter to drink the rest. He is skeptical about anything we try and encourage him to eat or drink now, and he has reason to be. At about 11:30am, the Radiology Department came to our room to wheel Carter (and Mom) on a gurney to get the CT scan. Carter was screaming and flailing his arms. He is skeptical about hopping on that gurney with Mom now, and again he has reason to be. The radiologist told us he would also be putting a contrast dye into Carter’s blood (via Broviac). I had to leave the room for the scan (since baby is on the way), but Matt got to wear the lead vest once again and stand by his baby’s side as he is taken through the CT scan machine (or "spaceship" as we tell Carter). He had finally settled down when it was over and I got to come back into the room and they told us they are taking Carter directly to Nuclear Medicine for his kidney scan. This is something the hospital tried to spring on us at our last hospital stay. They said UCLA was requesting this scan to check Carter’s kidney functions. We asked if there was an immediate need because if not, we’d like to plan ahead (as I cannot be around Carter for a certain amount of time when he is radioactive). They said we could try and do it around our next chemo stay, so here we are. Luckily, this test stays in the kidneys a lot less time than it stays in the bones (for the previous bone scan when I had to stay away from Carter for 40 hours). This one requires me to stay away for more like 6-8 hours. Just to play it safe, I left for the day then and Matt is holding court at the hospital. We knew this would be coming, so I stayed four nights in a row at the hospital because we knew Matt would have to stay during this scan and chemo time (which will probably be four nights as well). It’s hard to stay there consecutively, but I remind myself that Carter doesn’t have a choice and he has to stay there for twice as long. Through all of these tests today and with all the dyes and fluids being pumped through his little 25 pound body, he is one brave fighter.

He got sick this afternoon, probably due to the day’s activities. Hopefully, he’ll have a good rest tonight because we’ll find out tomorrow morning if we’ll stay on course to start Round 3 of chemo or if we’ll have to delay a few days to get his white blood cell count higher. Obviously, we hate to see one wasted day, but need Carter to be strong to continue this battle within his body. We are so anxious to get to CT scan results tomorrow!! Tumor be gone on his right lobe and middle section, and only be on the left lobe!!!!!! Or at least show us HUGE progress in that direction!!!