Thursday, May 13

Yesterday when the bone scan was finished, they had to put a straight catheter in to get the urine out because that is how the dye used for the bone scan is excreted, and they wanted to make sure the dye didn't stay in Collin's body longer than necessary. It occurred to me that the last time Collin had a catheter, it caused a UTI, and so I wanted to make sure they were on the look out for that; I didn't want him to develop another one right before we wipe out his immune system with the chemo. So they collected urine for a urine analysis.

Collin was scheduled to have a baseline hearing test this afternoon, and then they added the bone marrow biopsy to the list of tests to be done today. This morning when the neurosurgeon checked in on Collin, he felt the fluid filled area on the back of his head had increased in size, and thought Collin's eyes were a little more crossed, so he ordered another CT scan to be done in the morning before his other tests. The CT scan didn't show any big changes, so another LP was added to the the list for the day so they could do another check on his fluid pressure. During the hearing test, the audiologist got a read on his left ear, but not on his right because he seemed to have some fluid in that ear. Since Collin was born in this hospital, they had his newborn hearing test on file, and at this point there is no reason to think he has any trouble hearing. After we got back to his room following the hearing test, it was time to turn right back around and go down for the bone marrow biopsy and second LP. The LP pressure was eleven (it should be below twenty), so there was no concern that the hydrocephalus was an issue. The initial slides from the bone marrow biopsy looked fine, but the final results won't be back until Monday.

Collin vomited tonight after the respiratory therapist gave his Albuterol treatment. I quickly learned how to turn on the suction machine and suction out his mouth to try to prevent him from aspirating anything into his lungs. The resident on duty came and listened to his lungs, but felt he sounded OK; she said since his respirations were fine and he had no fever, she didn't feel he needed a chest X-Ray. If anything changed overnight, she would order one.