Today we traveled to Riley Children’s Hospital for our once every 12 week day of port chemo and spinal tap. Karson was a trooper as always and only complained of hunger (due to him needing to fast before his spinal tap procedure.)

Overall, Karson’s counts were good and he is still doing very well. What an answer to prayer! He was tough once again through his chemo and spinal tap and didn’t flinch or fuss. He also did not get silly today with his anesthesia but instead got really quiet and serious. He told me this evening maybe it’s because he’s five now he doesn’t get silly anymore with that medicine. Either way, he did great and was patient through the recovery while he had to lay flat and allow his chemo to work its way up and down his spinal column. During this time Daddy walked a “country mile” across the IU Med School campus to a Chick-Fil-A to get Karson the food he’d been waiting all day for. Karson ate 11 chicken nuggets and fries and a ton of apple juice and milk! Can’t blame him! :)

We had the doctor look again at Karson’s face rash--which we didn’t even need to point out it is so obvious upon looking at him. The doctor thinks it’s a pretty bad rash and wants to get it cleared up for Karson. The good news is he says it’s nothing to be concerned about and nothing serious it’s just a “nuisance” as he put it. The only concern would be that it would become infected, but at this point it looks fine. So, after the Riley doctor consulted with our Lutheran doctor they gave us a stronger steroid face cream to try. We’ll see what happens.

On a lighter note, a nurse today decided to ask Karson to spit into a cup (for a clinical trial sample) while he was still partially sedated. I got a kick out of watching him accidently miss the cup and spit on her instead! :) She was a great sport about it!

We also had a lot of flu questions to ask today. We try our best not to live in fear (Kraig is better at that than I am!) and we don’t want to worry, but the H1N1 news reports have us concerned. We want to be prepared and know what’s best for Karson. We were advised to all get the seasonal flu shot asap. However, none of us are currently able to get the H1N1 vaccine because the first round of it is a mist and that is a live vaccine. Karson can not get any live vaccines and neither can since we live with him. So, we are advised to wait and get the H1N1 (all of us) when it comes out in a killed vaccine/shot form. We are also advised to keep up our hand washing and being careful. It’s scary, but we will do our best and trust God to protect us and sustain us as He’s done so far!

Speaking of the flu, the hospital had new stricter polices today to keep their patients isolated. The policy is that no siblings are allowed in the rooms or procedure areas. So! Karly was out of luck! Well, not really! Thankfully we had taken our sister-in-law along to help and so she and Karly got to spend some bonding time walking the hallways for a few hours. I guess Karly loved walking up and down a little ramp in the lobby and that kept her occupied for quite awhile! :) Thanks again Trista for your help!!

We go for Karson’s next port chemo in four weeks and we start the steroid stint tonight. We’ll keep you posted! Thank you for caring and praying. Your prayers are so much appreciated.