Liam's Feeling Well

You wouldn't know Liam went through anything this morning, he is happily playing. He seems to be feeling great. He doesn't even have stitches at the insertion site, just 2 steri-strips.

Liam is very happy to add a new bear to his teddy bear family. "Baby teddy", Liam's favourite, required some stitches recently. Liam told the nurse today that baby teddy is feeling better.

On Our Way Home!

Liam's feeling good, and off we go.

Surgery done

Surgery is done, everything went well. We are just waiting for Liam to wake from a nap! He was up a few times in the night, so he was tired.

All ready to go

Update from Oncologist & Surgery Tomorrow

We met with Liam's primary oncologist, Dr Lucie on Monday. She reviewed the MRI and lumbar puncture, and confirmed that results from both are all clear! The neurosurgeon wants to meet again regarding the hydrocephalus. We are really hoping it's not still increasing with the last MRI, or they'll start talking about putting in a shunt. A shunt to drain excess CSF from the brain is not abnormal with this type of tumour, but it means another surgery.

We received the surgery time for tomorrow morning, bye, bye "noodles"! Liam will have to keep the area of the central line insertion clean and covered for a few weeks. He will still have a few weeks before he can go swimming.

Having the central line removed does mean that Liam will need an IV/poke for future anesthetic or blood tests. For the next MRI, we will ask that we try to do it without anesthetic, since Liam did it for radiation. If anyone suggests any blood tests anytime soon, they will get an earful about not having done it before the central line came out!

Central Line

If everything goes to plan, this will be our last weekly dressing change and last weekly cap change for Liam's central line. If they do the heparin lock at clinic, then it will even be our last heparin lock.

We are trying to prep Liam for getting his central line out. At his age, a change like this can be difficult, his "noodles" have been a part of him since May 2012.

Liam watches his iPad every time we do his dressing change.

It is day surgery to get Liam's line out. We are scheduled for Wednesday, we don't know what time yet. We hope early, since Liam can't eat or drink before, due to the anesthesia.

Feeling better this morning

After I posted last night, Liam felt worse again. He was complaining that his head was hurting everywhere. He was even crying out "ow, my head". With all Liam has gone through, he's never cried out in pain like that before. Then he vomited again. After the doctor said "watch for meningitis" earlier today, we were just a tad on edge! There is a small risk of meningitis with the lumbar puncture.

I called the oncologist again last night. He reassured me that these symptoms sound very much like a lumbar puncture headache. You know it's a different world when the doctor asks if you have codeine or morphine for your child at home. (no, we don't have any) He also suggested we could give Liam caffeinated pop. Apparently, caffeine can relieve a lumbar puncture headache. Liam has never tried pop, but we weren't exactly keen on trying caffeine at night unless we were desperate.

Liam has already had 6 or 7 lumbar punctures. I'm glad he hasn't experienced this before. Thankfully, the protocol is 6 months until the next one. The doctor mentioned they can do some things different next time as well.

This morning, Liam "slept in" until 7:00. He promptly got up and started playing. That was very nice to see. After a couple of hours, he's a bit tired but he seems to be feeling good. Thankfully, he hasn't complained of head pain today so far. I just hope the vomiting hasn't set Liam back with the progress he's made with eating.