The previous spinal injection was horrible. Gabriel had thrashed and screamed terribly, very terrorising. He couldn’t be consoled as he wasn’t himself. He was conscious and yet unconscious. I had then wondered what had happened to him. I had since read quite a lot about the drugs used in sedation.
Gabriel was given Chlorpromazine and Promethazine. This valium type of drugs give calming effect, and could also cause hallucination, as well as psychiatic side effects. I understood it as, if Gabriel was going to hallucinate the next time, I hope to help him to a sweeter dream, instead of a demon-chasing, traumatising one.
This morning, Gabriel was being treated in his own room, which was a good start, compared to a strange foreign treatment room he was in last time. He was comfortable as I made it a point to play with him a lot. He laughed and was very cheerful before the start of the treatment. I then climbed into bed with him, held him, played with him, sang to him, while he held on to his ‘doudou’, and the nurses and doctors worked on him.
He protested in his usual way. But not violently. By the time we realised the drug was injected, he was already half way sedated. A few minutes later, he woke up as expected for the ‘screaming’ episode, except that his time, he didn’t scream, instead, just a normal protesting cry and then quickly calmed down. I was so glad. He wasn’t terrified this time. The stem cells were injected smoothly and successfully via spinal tap.
As like before, he woke up about 3 hours later, dozing on and off. This time, again he wasn’t tensed or fought the demons like last time. Instead, he simply opened his eyes, cried a little, then quietly went back to sleep. Throughout the 6 hours of sleeping time, I played soft soothing classical music in his bed from the ipod. It was consoling to see him sleeping peacefully, hardly stirred. A big change from the previous experience.
Once again, once he was fully awake from his long sedation, he cried. Well, this time, I knew. It was for food. Just like before, he had huge appetite. He finished 3 complete bottles of his milk. Emptied and clean. In a mere 2 hours.
He is doing well so far. Temperature is at 37C. We will continue to monitor him. He is happy and content now, in his bed, surrounded by his toys. I hope we will have a good night sleep tonight. That’s something I still haven’t learned to control. Last time, the night was a torture. This time, well, we will see…
Best regards,
Asty