Day 4 thoughts

The wacky thing, it's day 4, but since we weren't admitted to the hospital until Monday evening, we've been here less than 100 hours. And yet everything is now turned upside down. 100 hours ago we were concerned about getting Alan an appointment for hernia surgery before it got too painful. Now we would give anything to deal with just a hernia.

We've been talking to a lot of people from the hospital today. Child Life advocates explaining the port and life with chemotherapy. The hospital chaplain came by to introduce herself and offer her support. The nurse advocate came by with a binder which is basically a primer and organizer for families of children fighting cancer. She'll help us with educational materials once we confirm the type of tumour. And there's still the case manager and social worker worker to come.

I've had a few amusing photos with a wet diaper in the background, encased in a biohazard baggie. We need to keep Alan's diapers for the nurses to weigh so they can track his fluid intake and output. When I change his diaper in another part of the hospital, they don't have the plain bags so they give me a biohazard bag instead. Now I could make a joke about toddler poop, but the thing is, while he's on chemotherapy and for 48 hours after, I'm going to have to change his diapers every two hours with gloves and dispose carefully. That's because the chemotherapy drugs, after circulating through his body, will be eliminated into his diaper along with all the usual.

Just one of the ways life is going to change. We'll figure out more of the changes as we go along.