June 25, Tough Day

It’s now shortly after noon on Friday, June 25, and Garrett is finally resting. It’s been a long morning for our cowboy. When I got to Denver last night, Garrett was already pretty anxious about today because his fears of having to get another IV were overtaken by the immense concern that the infusion might burn like it did last time. We tried to reassure him, but couldn’t lie and tell him it wouldn’t. We hoped, but just didn’t know. Unfortunately, his doubts were confirmed this morning.

The little bumps turned into bigger ski jumps. When we arrived at 7am, they weren’t ready for us. After 11 years of dealing with Garrett, they know that he has some PTSD symptoms from all the trauma he’s had to endure. In the past his transplant coordinator has done a good job of prepping the staff so Garrett sails through with few hickups. This usually includes having everything in place, making sure an anesthesiologist is available to conduct the IV and give him oral cocktails to help him relax. This process all stems from the hundreds of IV’s he’s had over the years that have damaged and scarred his little veins. They average 3 needle sticks for one IV, and then the chemo-type meds have a tendency to burn. Sometimes they make him very nauseous as well. Put that in to about 30 IV sticks since the first of April and you can understand why he’s a little upset that it might hurt.

Unfortunately, Garrett’s normal coordinator is gone on family bereavement leave and a proxy is filling in. In addition to not calling Kathy twice this week to update us on blood tests, as is the norm, this person apparently didn’t read the history and failed to have anything in place. This significantly increased the wait time and subsequently, the anxiety level. Fortunately, I had sort of a suspicion this might happen and had called ahead yesterday to ensure an anesthesiologist was ready. The initial needle stick went well, but without time to get pain and relaxation meds ordered by the forgetful proxy, the burn of the infusion meds was too much for him to take. He was in a lot of pain and then got nauseous. He threw up. They had to stop the infusion. Garrett begged for a pic-line. He said he didn’t care if he had to stay in the hospital another week, he wanted the pain to go away. Doctors told him that a pic-line was not an option this time, so the only option was another IV spot because the first one was in too small a vein. We needed to find another, bigger vein.

Through the first series of jabs, sticks and harpooning, I watched him grimace and squall as the chemical medications burned up his arm. Then Garrett started and kept up a breathing pace that impressed the nursing staff. How many 11 year olds know tactical breathing? It's a battlefield proven method to contradict some of the body's natural reaction by working to combat stress. He did a great job and took the last two pokes, including a blown vein, without a tear or sound. He said “daddy, I really tried to cowboy up and not cry but I just want it to go away”. I assured him that he owes nobody an apology. Even the toughest warriors in history have cried. They just came back fighting, exactly like he does.

It's hard to try and explain to him why he has to hurt and get sick in order to get better and go home when I don't understand it myself. I just know that God has a perfect plan and we need to trust in Him. But three more sticks and two blown veins later, we finally are in business. I know I’ve said this before, but there is not a dang thing fair about this process or anything this boy has had to go through. It hit pretty hard today for some reason and I was not too gentle with how I handled the absent minded nurse. I’m just a little tired of seeing him in pain and seeing his momma and sister crying because they’re tired of seeing him hurting. Kathy gets very scared when the nurses don’t call and are supposed to. History has shown us that it’s usually because they have found something wrong and are taking another look. Kathy has had to call the proxy to remind her to do her job. We can’t wait for our nurse to get back.

Even though we were here early we got started pretty late because of the administrative glitches, so it looks like we won’t be out of here until late tonight. He’s about four hours in to a 6 hour infusion round then has two shorter ones after that. If he’s still doing ok, we get to go home tonight. I’ll let you all know.

On a lighter note, I performed some minor oral surgery on Jessi today to help a loose tooth get ready for the Tooth Fairy. It was successful, even without a maxillofacial degree. We also gave one of Garrett’s “Cowboy Up” bracelets to a little boy who got hit by a car. Poor little guy was peeled by the asphalt and still manages to try and smile.

God bless and have a great weekend. We’ll update once we know how he’s handling the meds this time. The sun is up, the birds are singing and it’s a pretty day regardless of how tough it started.

JD
P.S. - Oh, that absentminded nurse? I spoke with a doctor and told them I fired her. I want one who’d be on the ball and will spend a little time finding out about her kids. Garrett and Kathy have earned that much.