On Friday Sam got another dose of Chemo, after which Sam was to be allowed to leave the hospital, and stay in our accommodation nearby, and be treated as an outpatient. While Sam was getting the chemo, one of his good mates came to visit, which was awesome! The only thing was that Sam had to stay in his bed for 3 hours just in case he had a reaction with the chemo. Not that fun when you want to go play with your friend. However, at least Sam was able to share the joy of hospital bed riding with someone who could appreciate it.

It was so nice to have dinner together as a family outside of the hospital. It had only been 6 days but it felt like it had been a month. We now needed to stay in Brisbane for at least another 3 weeks, while Sam was given his treatment as an outpatient.

Driving the bed

Out in the real world

Tired little boy

The Uno Champion!

On Tuesday morning, Sam had surgery under general anaesthetic, during which the doctors did a few things.

1. took a sample of Sam’s bone marrow to send to the U.S.A. to identify which specific variation of pre b cell ALL was in Sam’s blood
2. Gave the first dose of chemotherapy into Sam’s spinal fluid
3. Installed a port-a-cath.

The Port-a-cath is a round button like thing that is inserted under the skin, and which attaches to a vein. This makes it easy for giving I.V. treatments and taking blood without having to find a vein in the arm. It is still a needle poke through the skin, but it is relatively quick and easy. Sam will have the port-a-cath for the duration of his treatment, and when he is away from the hospital, the skin heals up and he can go swimming and have showers without worrying about it. The only negative is that sometimes they can get infected, in which case it would have to come out.

 Sam was not that happy with his port at first, mostly because it was quite sore from the surgery, however now I think he realises that it does make treatment a bit easier for him. The O.T. came around and showed Sam what the port looks like and how it works on Billy, the local port-a-cath doll.

How do you explain leukaemia to a 6 year old? With puppets obviously. The hospital has some excellent Occupational Therapists who are there to help the children understand their illness in a way they can understand. Sam learned that his blood is sick. The factories in his bones make three different types of cells. Red blood cells, White blood cells, and platelets. The problem is that the factories in his bones are making white blood cells that are not quite right and not making enough of the other cells that his body needs. That’s where Captain Chemo comes in! His job is to kill the sick cells, but sometimes he gets carried away and accidentally kills some of the healthy cells as well, which can make you feel sick and tired.

Thank you, thank you! to all the people who volunteer their time to help put a smile on a little person’s face. As we all know, hospitals are not exactly where you choose to go for a good time, but having unexpected funny visitors sure helped to brighten up the day.

The Clown Doctors came and blew bubbles to clean Sam’s feet, The Starlight Foundation did magic tricks, and Camp Quality brought in a puppet.