Radiation Day 12... NOT

Wednesday February 8th AMAZING morning! No, I repeat NO tears. He didn't even ask about eating or cry about being hungry. I am telling you, this week has been a gift from Heaven. The last two weeks we have had major battles tears and fits when Atticus wakes up. So to have good morning's makes a HUGE difference. For all of us. I was so SO nice. Radiation went as planned. Or so we thought. They came and got us and once in the room, informed us that Atticus did NOT get treatment today. My heart dropped. I did a quick look over Atticus to see anything was wrong, but didn't see anything. I was a tad bit nervous. As mentioned on Radiation day 10 or 11, I can't remember, Atticus started having a little difficulty with his airway/mask. Well toady, after sedation but before the mask was placed, his was breathing a tinybit irregular. When they put his radiation mask on his breathing became very irregular and his stats dropped. Big time. They tried to tweak things but could not get his oxygen saturation level above 90. So "safe not sorry." The anesthesiologist thought that there is a good chance it was due to a cold coming on or allergies. Not to toot my own horn but Im a pretty attentive mom especially since diagnosis and have been even more attentive to the happening's of Atticus. And there are NO signs of either of those things. Not one teeny tiny cough. No sign of a yucky nose or glassy eye's. So I was 99.9% sure that was not the problem. (FYI, I have no problem being wrong, so if it does end up being a cold or allergies, thank you Dr... I can't remember your name!). We waited for Dr. Munoz to come in. There is a possibility that mask is too tight but Dr. Munoz thinks it is due to tummy pressure. He gave the analogy of pregnancy. The farther along I am and the bigger my tummy gets when Im pregnant, the stronger the pressure gets making it more difficult to breath. Especially while laying down. The same idea with Atticus. His tummy has gotten pretty big (he has gained 7 pounds in 3 wks) that when he lies down on his back the pressure is too much for his lungs to breath at their full potential on their own. So the plan is to cut a whole in the face/mouth of the mask allowing them space to insert a larger "oral airway." It's called an Allimay tube (Im sure I totally spelled it wrong). It allows better control with less worry. It will go just above his adams apple, for the life of me I can't remember the "medical" name Dr. Munoz called it. I asked if it would hurt him and as I suspected, it may leave him with a little sore throat, but he will be sedated when placed and taken out. So we'll try again tomorrow and hope upon hope that it works otherwise they'll had to redo Atticus entire "plan" putting us a week behind schedule. A week for the stupid tumor to grow. For radiation days missed, due to situations like this or sickness, they tac the days on to the end. So his new "end" date is March 6th. Then, fingers crossed, Atticus is feeling well and our family playtime begins!! Can I just say again how awesome my son is. He's four. FOUR. And this kids is taking all this in remarkably well. Eric and I really do feel honored to be given the opportunity to raise such an amazing soul. A warrior. He is teaching us so much. We love you all and love the support, comments, and words of encouragement you give us each day. Thank you. XOXO, Cindy Funny things Atticus has said... * (Aunty Jen was helping him get up)... "Thanks Aunty Jen. Im a chuuuuby boy!" * At 11:45 pm he woke me up in a chipper, sing-song voice saying, "Helloooo! It's snaaaaaaack time!" * In his prayers, "Please help Chunkerton to not be a fuss-pot!" * He told us of an idea he had to help Chunk crawl crawl instead of army crawl. "We tie a string to his back with a backpack and and then he'll crawl" (Im pretty sure if we placed a squeeze pack of food on the end of that string it would work!) Mrs. Cherry came today! It's always a good day when Mrs. Cherry comes. I was kicked out of the kitchen while they worked on a surprise...

 

He had us sit on the couch with our eye's closed. Atticus had made a special Valentine for me and Eric. A framer for sure...