Joshua’s SOD Blog

Day 33 – Monday 1st June 2009 – Stem Cell Treatment Number 7

We all had a good nights sleep, but had to wake up early so that Josh could have his milk and breakfast before his cut-off point.

Today is Children’s Day in China, and all the staff brought a gift round to all of the children on the 20th floor. Also all the staff had their photo taken with Josh and the other children. Josh had a lovely teddy bear, its so sweet. He didn’t think too much of it at first, as it takes Josh a while to sus-out new toys etc.

He had his electrical wave therapy and standing sessions as normal this morning, and Linda said that she would try and re-arrange her appointments so that we could squeeze his physio in before he had his treatment, and she did, except it only lasted about 10 minutes. This was because Josh had a tantrum, which we think was because he was hungry, poor thing!

Nurses Kitty and Catherine then came round at 2pm to place the IV line in before going to theatre. They struggled to find a vein again, his poor feet are covered in bruises. Once they found a vein, it didn’t take them long at all to get the line in. At 2:25pm, they took him down to the theatre on the 3rd floor for his spinal. He looked so small sitting up on the big cot trolley. They then gave him the anaesthetic to make him sleep, and he actually fell asleep sat upright, and we had to lie him down, but he looked flat out.

After about a hours anxious wait, Josh was wheeled back into the room still fast asleep. He was awoken by the staff then who took his pulse and blood pressure. He stayed awake then, even though his eyes looked very tired. The nurse came in and said that she would give him valium as before. Within around 5 minutes, he was wide awake, just singing, kicking and playing. We now know that valium doesn’t calm him down!!

His 6 hours lying down have gone quite quickly, although the last hour and a half have been a bit of a struggle keeping him entertained. He is now sat upright on the bed playing with his toys, and thankfully not in any pain. Lets hope he sleeps all night.

Add comment June 1st, 2009

Day 32 – Sunday 31st May 2009 – Stuck In Again

We’ve been told this morning that we’re not allowed to leave the hospital today at all!! This is because Josh has his 7th Stem Cell Treatment tomorrow, and that the Anaethetist needs to explain the procedure as its another spinal, listen to Josh’s chest and for us to sign a consent form. This should only take a maximum of 5 minutes, but we’ve got to wait in all day… To make matters worse its really warm and sunny outside, and we’d planned a trip to the park with a picnic. We have to settle for a picnic in the room watching a DVD again.

We’ve not got long to go now, so today we’ve been talking about what we’re missing the most, I am missing my bed, it’s so much comfier and bigger than this one! Ant is missing Matilda… his Playstation and Sport on the TV! Mum is missing her bathl, as her hotel room doesn’t have one. It does have a really nice walk in shower, but it’s just not the same as a long soak in the bath!!

We’ve also planned what we want to eat when we get home! I can’t wait for a Sunday Roast, with all the trimmings, yum yum! Ant wants minted lamb chops with potatoes, as we have hardly had any potatoes since we’ve been here. Mum says she would love a Gammon Joint, with potato croquettes and parsley sauce… Instead this evening we’ve had KFC for a change!! I so need to go to Weight Watchers when I get home, I feel like I’ve put loads of weight on, it doesn’t help that we’ve been eating a lot of take aways and not moving an awful lot.

This evening, we’ve also caught up with Dad, Nannie, Chris and Ben on Skype. It was nice to hear that their journey home was trouble-free, and that they’ve all recovered well from a whole days travelling.

Tomorrow is Josh’s 7th treatment, and so he’s starved from 9am, poor thing!!

Add comment June 1st, 2009