Post-Op Checkup

Caleb and I left our house a little after 11 to head for his post-op checkup appointment. Hello, icy roadways! The checkup included some in-house x-rays so we could see how things were healing. The good news is that things look...[drum roll please]...good. There is new bone growth to strengthen what was soft, infected bone. His surgery scar has healed well and doesn't need to be bandaged anymore. It's so great to see all of his two little legs! (Actually, I can't see them that well because of the blur of motion, but you know what I mean.) One minor bummer for Mommy and Daddy (and Caleb, perhaps) is that we're facing at least one, if not two, more weeks of IV meds. It's what's best for him, but it does interrupt everyone's sleep, and it means that I can't start my second job. (Oh yeah -- my job at Lakeview was cut to teaching just one class and some side responsibilities, so I need another job. More on that at a later date...) He's got another follow-up scheduled in two weeks, and we pray that things continue to go so well.

The second part of our day was at MGH to get blood drawn. Now, I didn't like blood draws before the PICC line, but now that Caleb didn't have to get stuck, I was OK. I waited for Caleb's turn at the lab, only to find out that they can't draw from a PICC line at the ACC building. I was mildly insistent that the draw come from his line, since that's a big benefit of having it in. Mary the supernice, superPhlebotomist called Oncology, and after much delay and some confusion, we headed back out on the icy roads toward the Oncology building. The ladies in Oncology were overwhelmed by Caleb's cuteness and showered him with praise and stuffed animals, which he ATE UP. They drew his blood, changed his dressing, and sent us on our way at about 2:20. Whew. That was a long, long afternoon, and one without a nap for Caleb, but he handled it fairly well. Mommy made it too. :)