Two All Beef Patties

I had my test yesterday and did ok. I missed 7 our of 50 and got an 86%. I could have done better but the questions I missed are ones I didn't even have in my notes. Arg!

Example: A mother (with no complications) wants to deliver at home in a tub. One of the most important things to inform her is:
a) She isn't allowed. Tub births are unsafe.
b) If her temperature rises and the fetal monitor shows abnormalities then she will need to take breaks outside of the tub
c) she cannot wear a fetal monitor in the tub
d) she needs to fill the tub with lots of bubbles so the baby is clean when it comes out (Ok, I made this one up, but the rest are actual answers)

I picked C, because I had no idea you could wear a fetal monitor in a tub. I was thinking she may be electrocuted. Ha! The correct answer was B. If I knew they could wear one in the bath I obviously would have picked the right answer. DER @ me.
Anyhow, it's over and I passed, so no complaints there.

I was off from school today so I got to go with Aidan to his Dr's appointment. Today he had another lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and a bone marrow aspiration (again). The lumbar was to insert Methotrexate and to take some spinal fluid and test it for cancer cells and the other (BMA) was to make certain his cancer is gone. If so, he won't have to have any of these tests for a while. We pray.

It's so hard on him. He's getting hospital anxiety...REALLY BAD. Can you blame him? We stayed at the Ronald McDonald house the night before. It's a pretty neat place. It's designed for families who are at the hospitals with their children a lot and who live out of town. The cost is $10 a night, so you can't beat that. It has 4 floors and each floor has it's own kitchen, family room and play areas. There is a main kitchen on the main floor and it also has a large dining area attatched. Every evening a church, or individuals volunteer and cook a dinner for the families, isn't that nice? It has a lot of amenitites too such as: tons and tons of books for parents and kids, movies galore, each room is set up like a hotel room, toys, computers for public use, an outdoor play area, fully stocked kitchens with tons of goodies at your disposal (very bad for us-HA!), 4 washers and dryers and much more. I'm just very impressed with the place. It's also locked from the outside so no one can get in, only the families. It's designed like a home in many ways, but is more like a hotel. And because it's such a great place, for a great price, each family has a chore to do daily, as well as keeping your room clean and linens changed, which we didn't mind doing. Aidan originally thought he'd get to eat McDonald's food there all day, not so. They don't have a McDonalds on the premisis, but after his treatment he did get to have some of his favorite treats from the McDonald's at the hospital. It was a happy end to the day.

Anyway, back to what I was saying....while at the RMH, Aidan was already fretting over going to the doctor's in the morning. Sigh. I hate it as much as he does and wish I could take all of his treatments for him. He's so young, he doesn't really understand that it's for his own good. He screams even when they put EMLA (numbing cream) on him. He's just terrified. I'll be so glad when we can look back on this and say that it's over...that will be a great day. The doctor said he's doing really well and that his cytogenetic test revealed he had a triple...something I can't pronounce, but she basically said that there are 3 chromosomes (or something I didn't fully understand-will Google later) and that it's a GOOD THING! This bone marrow will determine his next treatment regimen and will determine for certain what risk catagory he is in. She believes he'll be in the low risk...ANOTHER PLUS. I guess that means he won't have as intense round of therapy as a high risk person might. I'll update more on this when I understand it myself. Also, Aidan is officially off the dexamethasone (steroid). YAY!!!! The doc said he'd stop eating after a few days (booooo!), but he'll feel better not having all of the extra swelling and weight.

Well, that's all for today. Have a nice week!