Day 14 - half month over

Today marks the completion of 14 days of treatment. Whew. Seems ages ago his cancer was detected. It's been a tough ride till now, but we are now learning to manage it. Of course, there will be more tough times, but there will be sunshine too.

We spent most of the day in the Children's hospital today. Today was another round of bone marrow aspirate, chemo drugs, blood tests. Poor kid had to stay hungry for his surgery almost the whole day. And the chemo drug makes him feel super hungry. This is so not fair. But we were prepared today and had packed his favorite foods and as soon as he woke from anesthesia, he jumped on the food and was ok.

Around 8:30 PM, the effects of pain medicine given with anesthesia wore off and he went into extreme pain. The point where the bone marrow test was done was the sore point and he could not lie on his back. We gave him oxycodone and I held him in my arms for 1/2 hour and he gradually drifted into sleep. He is getting braver day by day and so are we. Soon, very soon, the day will come when we will be in positive spirits the whole time. The next 15 days should be lighter on Shivam. This is sort of recovery time (sorry, I still do not know/comprehend the medical terms fully).

We had a long talk with Tina (his nurse practitioner) today. She is extremely patient and kept on answering our questions and concerns for over an hour. We also got a rough idea of what's coming in month 2. And it is not pretty. More on that later.

We also received a lovely communication from Ms. Leah, his teacher. We will soon be setting up a web cam where Shivam can see and talk with his school friends. I am looking forward to that (once the logistics and permissions are resolved).