Monday, May 31

Collin had kind of a restless night last night. He had a few episodes of vomiting in the beginning of the evening, and he moved around his bed a lot during his sleep. A few times I woke up to his fussing to find his feeding tube and IV lines wrapped all around him; once the feeding tube was even around his neck. This morning he was agitated and seemed uncomfortable, and his face and hands were very puffy. His hemoglobin had dropped over night, so he needed a blood transfusion this morning. When the stem cells were collected yesterday, they also collected some plasma, which has protein in it. By removing a lot of protein from his blood, it caused other fluid from blood cells to leak out into what is called the third space, or an area it wouldn't normally be. The blood transfusion helped Collin feel better, regain some energy and color, and reduce the puffiness.

Collin's hair has been falling out, and it gets all over him and his bed. It seemed like it would be pretty itchy to lay in, and I want him to be as comfortable as possible, so we decided to give Collin a buzz cut today. I sat him in his bed and held him up while the nurse used clippers to shave his head, and Bill filmed the whole procedure. I knew he would lose his hair, and I know it will grow back, but never in a million years would I have pictured his first full haircut this way. I cried the whole time, and we collected his hair afterwards and put it in a bag. Now that it's done though, I think he looks pretty cute.

Collin wore his eye patch this afternoon for the second time. Unfortunately he didn't take it as well as he did the day before yesterday; today he cried and fussed for pretty much the whole two hours. It was very frustrating and sad, both for him to experience, and us to watch. I just kept telling myself that it has to be done if we want to help preserve the sight in his right eye.

This afternoon Neya and my mom came in. Collin was laying in his bed, and Neya started playing with him. They were throwing the ball back and forth, and Collin was laughing a lot. He also seemed to be making more attempts at talking the way he used to at home; it's more sounds and gestures than actual words really, but it's nice to see another part of him coming back. It was so nice to see the two of them having so much fun together; they really miss each other. I can't wait until this is all behind us and they can play together at home like they always did.