Consolidation Phase day 10–Home care

 We’re ten days into phase two of Lincoln’s treatment.  This phase is 57 days.  Last week all of this arrived at my door.  It was overwhelming to say the least, but I don’t really have to deal with it which is nice.  Eric is our home care nurse, and he takes care of it all.  He’s the one who does the finger pokes, and this phase we’re seeing him a lot because he’s been giving Lincoln chemotherapy three days a week at the house.  On Monday’s we go in to the hospital and Lincoln’s port is accessed and he’s given chemo and has spinal taps, and then Tuesday through Thursday Eric comes and gives the meds at the house, and then removes the tubes and needles from Lincoln’s port on Thursdays.  Eric’s really great.  It’s been nice having him come and not do finger pokes so Lincoln can have better experiences with him.

My parents left, just me and the boys.                                                                                                        In general this phase is going pretty well.  Lincoln doesn’t seem to be having any horrible side effects, although it’s always hard to know how he’s really feeling.  He still runs around happy a lot though which makes me happy.  My parents left and drove back to Utah on Saturday and so now it’s just me and the boys during the day.  So far it’s been manageable.  The biggest difference is unless one of them is napping I really can’t get anything done.  Before I could kind of ignore them sometimes, but now I have to be watching them so closely always.  They rough house and wrestle a lot, and it would only take a second for Sawyer to grab the tubs under Lincoln’s shirt and pull on them and cause huge problems….so when they’re both awake I have to watch them at all times.

Lincoln’s Prayers                                                                                                                                      Lincoln does not like having his port accessed or living with it accessed. The other night he prayed that “Eric come take tubes out and take Band-Aids off.”  Then this morning the very first thing Lincoln said when he woke up was, “Eric take tubes out, take Band-aids off" and I said, Eric will take them off tomorrow.  Then Lincoln said, “No, Eric take them off  to Now!”  It was pretty cute, and sad.  I hope it’s not too uncomfortable for him.