Tuesday July 20

We had an 8:15 clinic appointment this morning for Collin's blood transfusion that took place over four hours. When we got to the infusion area, the reclining chair was set up with a pillow and blanket; the nurse told me that the special pillowcase (with whimsical dogs and pawprints all over it) was Collin's to take home (there are organizations like ConKerr Cancer (ConKerrCancer.org) that make special pillowcases for kids in hospitals). I was very touched by the gesture; someone somewhere took the time to do something special for these kids who go through so much. Collin was given Tylenol (standard procedure before a transfusion), and while we waited a little while to give it a chance to work before the transfusion started, Collin nursed and promptly fell asleep. Last night he woke up many times, so I knew he had to be tired this morning, along with feeling run down due to being anemic. The nurse hooked up the blood, and the transfusion got underway. Collin woke up about 40 minutes later, and we looked at books, colored, had a snack, and played a little. Eventually Collin nursed again, and fell asleep again for a short time until the infusion was done. Everything went well, and the staff were so great. The nurses are as wonderful and caring as the ones in the hospital, and three of the doctors saw us and came to say hi and see how Collin was doing even though we were not scheduled to see them today. They all genuinely care about their patients. Luckily Collin didn't develop a fever during the procedure, so we were able to come home afterwards. I'm continuing to monitor his temperature closely; it is up this evening, but not high enough to get him admitted to the hospital, at least so far. I'm hopeful that we won't have to go back to the hospital until his next scheduled admission on August 2.