Five Days

It's Friday and Henry and I returned home unexpectedly early yesterday evening. He's completed 24 of his total 29 radiation treatments, the remaining five left for next week now after the machine (a linear accelerator) had problems that couldn't be fixed yesterday.

All and all he's tolerating the radiation regimen very well. It's caused only some very minor appetite problems, his immune system has had a few small issues and the back of his neck is peeling like he's had a bad sunburn. He's scratched at it a little and made it bleed slightly, but that's the extent of the discomfort he's had to endure. He's acclimated quite well to the anesthesia and not being able to eat in the mornings too. Additionally his regular weekly bandage change for his catheter has been done under sedation for a month now so he has avoided that event successfully which is a bonus.

We've treated our time in Baltimore like a vacation otherwise. We've been to see Kung Fu Panda twice now and also caught Wall-E. We've taken several rides on the water taxis which are a real hit. We went to the Baltimore Zoo one day as well and Henry got to feed the giraffe which he still is talking about.


We've toured the U.S.S. Constellation, the Lightship Chesapeake, and the U.S.S. Torsk Submarine, and the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse. The girls were with us last week and we got to ride the dragon paddle boats in the harbor and got an impromptu tour of a Baltimore County Fire Truck.

Most recently we were treated to a ride on Sea Bard, a sail boat of a friend that we tooled around the Harbor on. The captain was kind enough to let the kids pilot for a while, which I'm sure confused many of the other folks out in the harbor that day! Thanks Captain Michael!



I would never have thought it, but our time at Casimir this time around has been downright pleasant apart from the obvious occasional family separation. Henry's endurance astounds us all - he knows no such thing as 'radiation fatigue'. After all he's been through, the little kid in him still comes shining through very consistently and his increasing maturity makes him a good partner to spend the day with.

So it's with great excitement that we anticipate his treatment finishing next Friday. Only 5 days left! We will miss our new friends, but I'm sure they'll understand how glad we'll be to be finished after 9 months of treatments!