Day 2

Day 2 and Dylan started the morning feeling better, the pain was almost gone and he didn’t ask for any pain medicine. He had a rough night though with lots residual pain in his legs and needed pain relief most of the night. In clinic first was a blood transfusion, this made him feel great and he even ate lunch, and was back to his old happy self, then came the 3F8 therapy. Dylan had the pain in his chest and he had trouble breathing, even though his oxygen levels were much better than yesterday. His heart rate went up and the majority of the pain lasted about half an hour with screams and moans. A few hours later we returned to RMDH and Dylan laid in bed immediately, moaning in pain. After about another hour he was screaming in pain even with the pain relief medication. He said it hurt even in his feet. I was distressed, and nothing I tried worked to calm him own, heat pads, massage, I even got nana in Australia on the phone to talk with him. He settled a bit but didn’t want to watch TV or play any games. Then there was a knock at the door, it was Dylan’s best friend Joseph, a fellow Neuroblastoma warrior. He came to see if Dylan wanted to play DS Nintendo with him. All of a sudden, Dylan’s face lit up and he rushed by his side to play DS. Dylan asked Joseph how the pain was when he had 3F8, and they started talking about what they felt and what they went through. It was great to see. It just goes to show that friendship can be more important than anything, and even at the age of 8 years old, these brave boys share a very strong bond. Joseph has been friends with Dylan for over 2 years now, and comes to RMDH from Texas several times a year. This past month Joseph had surgery and when he woke in ICU he told his grandfather to tell Dylan he was ok and made it through. Dylan got special permission to go and visit Joseph while he was recovering in hospital. Dylan has many friends at RMDH but Joseph and Dylan just seem to have a very special connection. Well, it’s now 10pm and Dylan has settled down well, watching a dvd and even laughing, so the pain is either better or he has learnt to deal with it. I can see that this pain will vary from day to day, last night was awful until 2am, but tonight it was more severe but over with sooner. Day 3 tomorrow already, that means after tomorrow he is over half way with his week, then he just needs to get through next week, then we can enjoy a 3 week break.