Malcolm went to the clinic (the hematology/oncology clinic at the hospital) today to have blood drawn and his dressing changed. The dressing covering the opening where his central line enters his chest needs to be changed every six days. Typically there is one nurse doing the actual dressing change and one nurse and myself holding Malcolm still. Today a "child life" worker also joined us to help distract him with fun toys. She has helped out the last few times he has been an inpatient and had it changed, and has been very helpful. It is a sterile procedure so we must all wear masks and only the nurse wearing the sterile gloves may touch the area under the dressing (Malcolm does not wear a mask as it would be impossible to keep it on him. It is all we can do to keep him from drooling on the site...) He often gets upset during the procedure because parts of it are painful (usually the most painful part is having the old dressing pulled off) and because he does not like being still for so long. Today it went fairly well - the old dressing cam off quite easily and there were no mishaps in applying the new dressing.
His counts are all very good. Hemoglobin is 103, platelets 533 and ANC 2700. The plan continues to be for Malcolm to start chemo next Tuesday.
Mary Ellen
Hi Mary Ellen,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the counts are good. We're thinking about you guys everyday!