Hospitalization Summary

We have finally made it home from the hospital! The past 9 days have been very busy. After getting up to the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology unit on Sunday night they started an IV on Elliot then he received a platelet transfusion. On Monday he received a transfusion of packed red blood cells. Later on Monday the lab results came back with the type of leukemia—Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. On Tuesday morning Elliot went to the OR and had a port placed, got a bone marrow biopsy, had a lumbar puncture, and received his first dose of chemo in the spinal fluid. He was pretty lethargic that day. On Thursday he got a dose of PEG chemo, which carries a risk of allergic reaction. He tolerated it well without any sort of allergic reaction, but didn’t feel the greatest. He also received another platelet transfusion.

On Friday, Sat, Sun, and Monday we didn’t have much going on. One of the struggles being in the hospital was that when Elliot felt well he wanted to move around (he doesn’t even care about watching TV). This was particularly difficult with him having an IV hooked up and getting IV fluids. We typically took Elliot on walks around the hospital multiple times a day in a little car they had on the unit. He loved just riding around and exploring the building. We would occasionally go outside to the “healing garden”, a nice outdoor area in the back of the hospital with flowers and a neat floating ball fountain. At one point his IV got caught on the bed and it broke the tubing. Blood began to drip out of his IV. I (dad) clamped off the tubing and the nurses quickly came in and removed the needle accessing his port and placed a new one. This was not a fun experience for him, but we are thankful it was resolved without anything more serious happening (such as his port clotting off).

On Tuesday morning he received another platelet transfusion, and then he went down to radiology and had a lumbar puncture in the morning. Later he received another blood transfusion. And in the evening we were discharged home. We will continue to give him steroids twice a day at home along with zantac (the steroids can cause upset stomach).