Monday, September 29, 2008

Just Henry

It's out. As of 8:35 this morning, Henry was line free. His "tubies", as he called them are now gone.

Last night we stayed at the Believe in Tomorrow Children's House across the street from the hospital as our arrival time for surgery was to be 6am. Henry had a little bit of a nose run and a heck of a lot of anxiety that kept us all up last night, leaving everyone with scarcely four hours of sleep.

Our late night worries were complicated by a spell of vomiting from Henry who now, presumably from radiation, has a hyperactive gag reflex. This makes any sort of sincere fit of crying turn ugly. We've gotten better at relegating these spells to the 'normal' kind of throwing up, not the 'brain tumor' kind of throwing up, but it's still disconcerting.

Our early morning worries included the concern that with the light sleep, a runny nose and vomiting on Henry's resumé that we'd end up taking an overly grouchy and disappointed four year-old home alongside his overly grouchy and disappointed parents. Anesthesiologists don't like those kind of complications too much.

As fate would have it, the brevity of the surgery and Henry's symptoms' apparent waning in the 20 minutes since he woke, played into our plans and a couple of hours later, Henry was waking up and we made our way home.

The surgeon made us promise to deliver a cupcake party as celebration. A great suggestion. We made and shared cupcakes with the neighborhood on a beautiful September afternoon. No tubies, no medicine. Just Henry.

8 comments:

rlbates said...

How wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Congrats Henry, you are my hero.
nk

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Henry! We're so proud of you. It was wonderful to see your smiling face when you got home and your tubie-free belly.

Hopefully we will have plenty of more beatiful fall days to play with our bubbles!

Love, Julie, Brad, Patrick, Andrew and Samantha

Anonymous said...

YEA HENRY!
Those cupcakes look yummy!

We love you,
Cousin Susan, Kendall and Cody

Anonymous said...

Congrats to you! Tubie FREE Henry!!!

Were the cupcakes as good as they look?

Ms.T

Anonymous said...

Great strides everyday!

Congratulations to all of you on this next big step.

Bobbi

Anonymous said...

Way to go Henry. No tubies is such a big step. Enjoy the "normal."

Michelle said...

Praising God for Henry's amazing achievements! He's an awesome young man, and quite handsome, too!! :)