Clinic and Pain

Hello,

Nick handled the steroids very well after the first day. He calmed down and made it through the week. His definitely had a bigger appetite this time around and I believe we went through 4 bags of Dorita's. He finished the steroids on Saturday morning and by Sunday morning the pain started. We had Michael over for a playdate during the day and the boys were great. Nick took a little nap while Colby & Mike spent time on the Wii. After Mike left, Nick complained more & more about pain. I gave him some Tylenol w/Codeine but by dinner the pain was not going away. We ended up alternating the Tylenol and morphine all night. On Sunday night before he fell asleep he said he had not experienced this much pain in a long time. He asked me why he was in pain. He kept moving around and trying to find a comfortable position. We also tried ice packs, heat packs and lots of back rubs to ease some of the pain. He fell asleep but woke me up in the middle of the night needing more pain meds. Again, it was another 'surprise' to steroid week for us. His pain is usually controllable and ends within a day. So, it now brings us to clinic. When we arrived at clinic today, Nurse Paula could tell right away that he was not felling well. His heart rate was elevated (165, normal 98-100). No fever, it was just from the pain in his back and legs. The nurse decided to give him a shot of morphine through his port. Which leads me to the picture above. The morphine knocked him out and let him relax for a couple of hours. He really needed this because he has been so uncomfortable.
Nana (Greg's mom) came with us today to see how the procedure works and maybe be able to take Nick for us someday. I believe the experience for Nana was more uplifting than what she expected. Many of you may not know this but Greg lost his sister (Ilene) to cancer 28 years ago. A lot has changed since then between the port and medicines, but you never forget your child and battle they go through. We know Ilene is looking down on us and guiding Nick through his treatment. Thanks for coming with us, Nana.
Tuesday, Nick is home again. (I started the blog on Monday and saved it until Tues. to post) I do not want to push him to go to school right now. The important thing is to focus on the pain and get his strength back. He gets pretty weak from this. His counts were high, which is to be expected since he just finished steroids. I am hoping after today, he will start to feel better and we can get back to a regular routine. Take care, Karen