THIS HAS BEEN A CRAZY WEEK!

We arrived at the Hospital bright and early....Mr. T had a LP (lumbar puncture) and a BMA (bone marrow aspiration) to see if the cancer blasts have gone up. Late afternoon we had a meeting. Apparently the cancer blasts haven't moved from 10. In order to be admitted and start chemotherapy they should be at 20. So they plan to send us home. They ask us to come in the next day in order to get medication for his liver. We go back to RMH (Ronald Mcdonald House) and I pack and let the office know I'll be leaving tomorrow.

The next morning we arrive at the hospital to be told that the medication Mr. T. needs cannot be given at home...so he needs to be admitted in order to receive it...so we can't leave. We unpack again...it's a good thing they didn't let someone else have my room.
Friday morning they plan his surgery. Mr. T is to get a double line brouviac inserted as he had last year. It is much easier to administer medication this way and as they anticipate that he will be getting chemo....they may as well put in the line now.
Mr. T's surgery goes well...and I'm happy to see him in recovery. I stare in shock at his line. This is not the right one! What he has is a double-lumin port-a-cath....and not a double line brouviac. There is a big difference!
The port-a-cath is great. My grandson can still take showers and swim....but for chemotherapy for AML Leukemia the brouviac is what he needs.

This picture was taken in January '06 with Paul a maintenance worker. As you can see Mr. T. is wearing a double-line brouviac.







This is a double-lumin port-a-cath. As you can see it is not visible to the eye. So, right now they are not using it. Mistakes 'can' and do happen. They plan to change it in several weeks when there are more blasts in his bone marrow.









My grandson has too much iron in his blood. This is called 'liver poisoning'. It is caused from too many blood transfusions. It is imperative that they remove the iron.
Desferrioxamine or Desferal is a chelating agent used to remove excess iron from the body. It acts by binding free iron in the bloodstream and enhancing its elimation in the urine. By removing excess iron, the agent reduces the damage done to various organs and tissues such as the liver.
This is a pump they use to inject him with Desferal. This medication is extremely expensive. I have read that in many countries people die everyday because they cannot afford the medication. I thank God that we live in Canada and the medication is covered if it is given in the hospital.
Every night they hook up my grandson from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. He will receive this medication for 7 nights and then get 2 nights off...till the iron level decreases.
They are not even using his port-a-cath to inject him. They inject him every night into his stomach. The first night he had a reaction which was treated with Benadryl.
The first 3 nights was painful....until an older nurse suggested using Emla (freezing agent) one hour before....and now Mr. T. is okay with the treatment. I have no idea why they didn't think of this sooner.