Monday, February 18, 2008

The day of 3 blood draws....

Today was one of the days I have been dreading. I had to take Ethan back to the hematologist so I could get trained on administering his medication. I was expecting him to have to be poked 3 times but they decided to do an IV instead. They put some numbing cream on him about 1/2 hour before and once we got back there, Ethan was all smiles. He watched them put the needle in and didn't even flinch. Numbing cream rocks! They took his blood and then gave him the medicine. It is a nasal spray and I have to admit that it did not smell very good so I can't imagine what it felt like in Ethan's nose. He did great though. We had to wait an hour so we went down to the cafeteria and had some lunch (pizza & ice cream!). He did complain a lot about the IV but I think it was more the tape they put on it. We went up again and had more blood drawn and an hour later had the last one done. They have a great waiting room complete with tv, a computer, toys & Gamecube so Ethan was in heaven. They did encourage us to get a medical alert bracelet or necklace, just in case, so we are looking into those now.

One other thing, I am so thankful to have healthy children. Hematology and oncology are in the same office. We saw a few kids, without any hair, wearing masks. I felt so awful for them but one thing I noticed was that they didn't seem to feel sorry for themselves. They were playing games and toys. They were all do adorable. One little boy, about 8 years old, was in the waiting room by himself. He had just had his blood drawn. The nurse came out with his results and asked where his dad was but apparently he was on the phone in the hallway. He asked the nurse about his platelet levels and his cbc. I couldn't believe how grown up he sounded and that he seemed to know what all of this terminolgy meant. I won't be surprised if he is a doctor one day.

1 comment:

WineLover said...

Glad that all went well!! and I 2nd your thankfulness for healthy children - it's tough to see what some others are dealing with.

see you tomorrow!