Battery of Tests

It was early to bed for Henry last night as we had an early start this morning. We arrived at the clinic before the receptionist and early enough that we got to feed the fish. His appointment was for 8:15am to draw blood and prepare him for his first test. Today was to bring a lot of testing.

For the first test, Henry was atypically resistant to the nurse's attempts to get him up into the bed for anesthesia. Henry's a good judge of character and I had already assessed this nurse as being a bit brusque. Fortunately the anesthesiologist, whom we've had - and liked - before, offered to give his sedative in his stroller through his tubes of course. He was quickly asleep. Mercifully, three of the five tests Henry was to have today would be done during this sedation. Two of the tests, the bone marrow biopsy and the bone marrow aspiration, comprise the bone marrow examination to check for metastasis of the medulloblastoma. The product of this test must be sent to California for processing. The other test during this morning sedation was his lumbar puncture.

He awoke from these after about half an hour of rest and was very pleasant and didn't complain of any pain the rest of the day. We grabbed some lunch and spent the afternoon taking care of his heart tests. He had an EKG and an echo cardiogram. The former is quick, the latter is long. Luckily they are very kid-friendly there and put on a kid video for him to watch during this procedure. The technician seemed to think everything looked normal but the formal report will be available to our doctor soon.

We headed home after our day of tests and stopped for Chik-fil-a. After not eating all morning, Henry made up for it the rest of the day with pizza, chicken and gummy worms. He remained in a terrific mood the rest of the day. I crashed when I got home and woke up for dinner - Henry was still going at 100 miles an hour. It's just been about 10 minutes ago that he finally quieted down.

Tomorrow we are to collect a 24-hour urine for him to test his kidney function. I tell Henry that the nurses love to see his pee! Thursday we'll have a CT scan of his sinuses to check for infections, a chest x-ray to ensure that his catheter is still well placed, and another hearing test to project any additional or potential hearing loss.

I think back on our first chemotherapy and how Henry wouldn't even wear the mask outside the hospital room to go play. Now he tells us when he needs the mask, he goes for hours without eating to prepare for testing, and places vials on his catheter to draw his own blood. What a change! We're so proud of Henry!