Surgery success

Quick update (catching up on work e-mails took priority this evening 👦)

Pretty good day overall. Libby came into the hospital with Joshua at 7.00am to wait for his surgery. In the event, it didn't happen until around 11.00am, so the rest of us were able to come in in time to see him before he went under (and so I could take him down to surgery).

The surgery all went smoothly, and they managed to put in his line for the chemo (a tube that basically runs from near his heart out to a little double tube in his chest for running the drugs in). He also had a lumbar puncture (and a bit of chemo through that at the same time) and some bone marrow taken out for testing (and unused samples used for research purposes apparently). They also took out the staples from last week's surgery, which was a bonus as Joshua wasn't particularly looking forward to that bit.

They were all pleased with how it went, and Joshua was fairly chipper when I met him in recovery. He said, "I wouldn't mind doing surgery again" - I guess being asleep isn't that hard. They even let him keep the face mask used for oxygen during the surgery.

He has had his first doses of chemo - both oral and through the line as well.

The rest of us are hanging in. Ruben has been very tired I think, which has made his behaviour a little bit challenging. The middle two start school tomorrow, and we will meet with the social worker and get a little more clarity on how we make this time in Brisbane work, which will be nice.

In some ways being in Brisbane is harder to handle than the medical stuff. I remember from our initial MAF orientation days being told that life is like a house built up of different building blocks (e.g. family, house, church, work, friends, community). We were told a key part of transition is putting all these blocks back together after moving to a new place. We have suddenly had all the blocks (except family) whipped out from under us at once - as well as the medical issues to deal with - so it is not surprising if we are feeling a bit at sea. But we will get through. Everyone here is really nice, and it is really set up (it is basically a whole ward dedicated to dealing with the kind of situation we are in).

I might put some more photos up tomorrow, time and circumstances permitting.