This morning Ellie had her port accessed for the first time. Originally they were going to wait until a week after the surgery to access it so that the area could heal, but they changed their minds and decided she needed to have labs drawn before the weekend. They sent us home with some numbing cream to put on the port site an hour before we came in. So this morning amongst all the chaos of Jeff trying to get to school, Timmy getting his nebulizer treatment (he's had a fever and a cold) and Ellie getting her morning meds we got the cream on and were ready to go.
Upon arriving at the clinic they called the child life specialist to come and help as I guess accessing the port for the first time can be quite traumatizing for some kids. Luckily Ellie was in an awesome mood, cruising around the clinic waiting room telling me all the animals on the walls, including Possum which seems to be a new favorite to say. After a little wait, we go into the lab room, I take off her dress and we look at the port site only to see the plastic and cream had slipped over to the center of her chest and was no longer on the port site at all. The nurse and child life specialist looked at me and said, well it will only be a quick poke. I'm thinking oh geez this is not going to be good. The child life specialist is blowing bubbles trying to distract Ellie, I'm holding her on my lap keeping her hands down, and the nurse is coming with the needle. By now Ellie has lost all interest in the bubbles and only wants to watch whats about to happen to her, and poke the needle goes in and it's done. The nurse starts drawing the blood and Ellie sits there smiling and watching what's going on. Everyone was shocked by our brave little 2 year old. She handled it like a champ. We are so proud of her. Her strength, smile, and attitude continue to amaze us everyday.
We waited around and the blood work came back and everything is holding steady, so we were sent home to enjoy the weekend. We go back Monday morning, and they think she will likely need a transfusion then, but for now it's on to our water table fun!
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Have a great weekend!
Ellie you are truly awesome! Love you!
ReplyDeleteEllie is awesome and she has awesome parents that are the steadies in her life to help her be that way. Good for you Polly and Jeff, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeletePolly - you're amazing. I don't know how you're doing it. I imagine that you're doing it for Ellie... one day at a time... but I still can't believe your strength. You are a wonderful, wonderful mommy to your babies.
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