Yukky Day.

Adam didn’t have a good day today

He had his tube done today. They inserted a nasal gastric tube to help feed nutrients to him as he is not eating as well as his body needs

He doesn’t seem like it is going to do much anymore today. He slept for most of the day and is upset at the process so it is better he rests.

The Phenergan didn’t work as we planned it to. He remembered most bits of it but didn’t remember his dressing change.

We have also just had a spike in temperature – 38.8.

He is getting antibiotics straight away and paracetamol to help maintain the temp down.

This isn’t capping of the day well!!

Early Days

Adam is going along really well.

He has been bright and giving cheek.

His counts are plummeting as required and there are signs of mucositis which is expected with very little white cells.

He is eating well also, but it is getting \difficult to find things he fancies.

We would expect the doctors to place a tube down to his stomach to help with nutrition over the next few days. This is part of the plan so not a big concern for us, however Adam is not looking forward to this and continues to eat like a trooper.

Marian and I are doing well and are excising each day to help keep our sanity.

Adam and I started building a meccano set today – a drag car. It will take us a couple of days.   Adam plans to drive it back home!!!

Transplant Day.....

After conditioning over the last eight days, we finally arrived at day zero. December 10th, 2010.
Darren arrived in time to see the process which was really great.
With four nurses to ensure the procedure was done to the book, Adam received his life saving donation.

Adam did really well with the transplant and has had an afternoon sleep which is really nice. He has worked so hard mentally over the last few days and it was great to see him relax a little.

We now wait for the cord blood stem cells to en graph, which could be weeks away. So lots of waiting and praying that he stays "bug free".



TBI and preconditioning finished

Wow, Adam has come to the end of his pre-conditioning treatment! Yippee!
Three days of Total Body Irradiation was an experience. Adam did really well, he was a champion, letting the radiotherapy team do their job "packing him up" (see photo's) ready to treat and then staying still for the 45 minutes of radiation. He managed all 6 treatments very well and only had challenging side effects on the evening of the first day.
It is great to have this phase of the treatment over and I think Adam has been a bit excited today. He has been feeling ok and giving all the staff plenty of cheek. He also managed to send the emergency alarm off in his room by shooting it with his nerf gun! He says he was aiming for the nurse call button, just below it then.....oops. I dashed across the room to turn it off as a cast of nurses decended. His nurse just said "Don't do that again Adam!" Probably not the first time it has gone off by accident..... or the last. I then drew a target on the window and white board, away from the call button!!

 The radiation machine, they sort of aim it at you!!

Legs all packed in so that he was a solid mass and TV set up to watch, he even managed a little sleep this morning, amazing the power of prayer...... Thank you everyone!

Tomorrow is transplant day, very exciting and Dad will arrive too. Adam and I are looking forward to all of this. More photos!

Thanks again for your continued love and prayers.............Adam and Marian

Chemotherapy continues

Well things have improved since Saturday night and have had a pretty settled couple of days. Big day tomorrow with Total body irradiation for the first time. Adam is feeling ok about this now, just got to lie still for a while. He has picked out a special DVD to watch to help, so hopefully this will work well.
Today we have started to get ready to decorate the room, we are putting up a new colour each week. This week will be yellow, next week red, the following week navy blue. No prizes for how we choose those colours. Got to get it all going before dad arrives and sabotages the colour scheme!!!!
We will put the yellow stuff up with help from the play coordinator here who is very tall, I couldn't quite do it. We want the yellow on the top of the wall so dad can't pull it down!!
We are also hoping that we might see Giggle tomorrow. If you do not know who giggle is we will take a picture and post it next time.
Thanks for all your continued thoughts and prayers.

This is Coogee Beach ... still enjoying managing to get to the beach each day to soak up the view.

Chemo has started!!!!

Well the chemotherapy and other medicines have started and Adam was coping really well, until this afternoon! Has been a bit rough since about 3 o'clock, but he is sleeping now, due also to the medicines !!! We have settled in ok to the hospital and all the nurses, doctors and other staff are nice. It is very interesting all the differences between hospital at home and here, nothing to be concerned about either way just lots of differences!
Randwick is certainly a nice place to be and I have enjoyed going for a walk each day and walking to the beach, again not like home but nice to see the sea!! That's pretty much the same !!
Also yesterday we had an answer to prayer in the way of some accomodation from around Christmas to the 9th of January, when we move into the already booked apartment at Coogee Beach. This fantastic, as it would have been a bit crowded in the unit at Rony Mac. Below is photo of Adam in his new hospital bed and the others were last weekend in Sydney!

This one is at Wagamama's ........... yum!!!!

Hopefully Adam will feel a bit better in the morning. God Bless.

Adams on the Oncology ward

Adam says hi everybody. Have been having lots of fun, I guess, playing lots of wii and having fun on that. Did some homework as well, didn’t really enjoy that bit! Yukky stuff starts tomorrow, probably won’t feel so good then. Hope that everyone in my class is ok and been missing me!

Mum says I should be a bit more humble !