Ugh - Blogger is so frustrating. It absolutely deleted my entire post. So, here we go again...
Today was a long day. I'm glad it's over. Joshua was awesome, and Logan was SO well behaved, but I am a very tired mama...
The results of the hearing test weren't as great as we were hoping... Joshua seems to have conductive hearing loss going on, thanks to negative pressure behind his ears that is creating a vacuum that's pulling his eardrum in and not allowing it to move freely. Luckily, this isn't anything permanent, and if it doesn't resolve itself, they can put tubes in his ears to take care of the issue. The audiologist said it may be caused by Joshua's constant sniffling all winter long. Dr. Dickens, the oncologist, says it's definitely NOT related to the cisplatin chemotherapy Joshua received as part of his treatment plan. That's great news. We're going to follow up with an ENT and see what they think.
Our visit to Hem Onc was great. It was so good to see people we haven't seen in a year or more. Dr. Dicken's said Joshua looks great. Based on his exam, we're not expecting any surprises with the MRI results on Monday. Plus, Dr. D may have mentioned that if they did see anything during the scan, they would call him right away and we'd know before we left the hospital. Radiology walked us to the elevator, so I'm pretty sure that's good news :) It will be nice to get an "all clear" on Monday, though.
The new children's hospital is AMAZING, by the way! For those of you who are local, you know that there is an entire side of the hospital that is nothing but windows. The exam rooms in Hem Onc are on that side and have floor to ceiling windows, that from 10 levels up, overlook the city. It's awesome. When we were getting a tour of the Hem Onc floor, we were going through the infusion area and you can see across the street to the helipad. There were 2 choppers sitting on the pad, and while we were there, one of the helicopters lifted off. The windows were vibrating and it was directly across the street from us, just above eye level. It was so cool! Joshua and Logan loved every second of it. All Josh's labs look good, which is awesome. Now, we watch for secondary malignancies and fertility issues. Any additional treatment-related side effects probably would have popped up by now.
4 more years of annual visits and scans! They only monitor closely up to 10 years past the end of treatment. After that, we'll still keep an eye on things, but it won't be quite as rigorous.
Thanks to our awesome Hem Onc nurse, Mary, Joshua only had to be poked once - when they were drawing the labs, they put an IV line in so that radiology could use it for the contrast during the scan. Josh was SO BRAVE. His vein was popped out really far, so she didn't need to do the tourniquet, but he held so still. They didn't have to hold him down at all - he was sitting up, I was holding his other hand and he had his head on my chest. He didn't even cry until the IV was in. I was bursting with pride. He got to pick an extra prize for doing so great, and they were kind enough to bring Logan a small prize too, for being so well behaved while we were down there. Our Hem Onc appointment was at 2:30pm and I we didn't get out of there until 4:30pm. Just enough time for the kids to play in the lobby for a bit and then we had to head down for the scan.
The MRI went ok. Joshua was pretty fidgety so what should have taken 40 minutes took an hour... Other than that, it was good. Logan got to enjoy the heck out of the new play room down in radiology :)
I'm tired and glad to be home. It's been a long day and I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy relaxing tomorrow.
So, we've been successfully navigating life after cancer for 6 years now. Go, us!
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