Journey

Auckland …. heat, cicadas, traffic and the hospital.  Rory is in room 10 on Ward 27B at Starship.  It is one of the smaller ward rooms (you can’t swing a cat) but it has a sunny window with a view over the helicopter landing pad and a bathroom.  Rory was admitted to Starship at 2pm yesterday.  Being admitted is an inefficient process and we always end up sitting around for at least an hour waiting for a doctor to arrive to do the paperwork.  Rory knew he had to be admitted, and put on a brave face, but his resolve weakened during the delay and there were some tears.  Starship are aware of the problem and are trying to streamline the admit process for oncology kids.  

IV fluids were started at 3pm and lasted six hours.  They are hyper-hydrating Rory (335mls/hour) to try and get his system to pass the Methotrexate more quickly.  He received the Methotrexate last night from 9pm-1am.  Needless to say there wasn’t a lot of sleep as the nurse was busy and Rory got up every hour to pee.  There was glucose in his pee, and an elevated level in his blood, this morning (common for teenagers) so the doctors have removed glucose from the iv fluids.  Rory has had the dressing changed on the wound on his neck which is healing slowly.  Yesterday morning, prior to admission, Rory had a clinic appointment with Dr Stephen.  Rory’s weight is still losing weight and his creatinine level was a little elevated.  They are keeping an eye on this as it could indicate impaired kidney function.  Rory will get a CT scan and another cardiac echo during this trip to Auckland.  Stephen surprised us by saying Rory could get started on chemotherapy right after the appointment.  The procedure to-date was for Rory to be admitted after dinner for overnight fluids with chemotherapy the following morning but now the children are being admitted after clinic and treatment started without delay.  I had promised Rory a day outside so we had to renegotiate to a morning out.  We had a brisk stroll to Newmarket in the sunshine to do a couple of chores before grabbing lunch, packing and heading to the ward.  This morning we had a visit from teacher Jan who is going to visit with an activity every day Rory is on the ward.

Rory and our family have been looked after very well at RM House during our stays over the last five months.  We have usually been allocated an apartment in the main house in the hospital grounds so we would have some space and to make it easier to transport Rory backward and forward to Starship.  Unfortunately an apartment wasn’t available at the main house on this visit so we had a choice of a room or an apartment at Grafton Mews, which is down the hill on Grafton Road.  Grafton Mews was opened in 2011 as the main house was not big enough to cater for all the families whose children were receiving treatment at Starship.  We were lucky to be given a choice and this trip we are staying in apartment 516 at Grafton Mews.  The only downside is having to push Rory up the steep hill with uneven footpath to Starship in the heat (it’s like weight lifting) but they have taxi chits available when you have to transport children and gear up to the hospital for admission. 

We have been subject to some wonderful random acts of kindness over the last couple of days.  Thank you for helping Rory and our family as we continue to put one foot in front of the other through this difficult time:

Gabby’s Starlit HOPE for the surprise grocery hamper and delicious Angel Delivery dinners.

The lovely Lyn (aka Money Penny) for the visit and the graphic novels.

Shirley for the home baking - I hope some survives the trip to Auckland.

The Chemo Crazies for their Prescription pack to fight boredom on the ward. 

Taranaki Arts Festival Trust and Smokeylemon web developers and boss Mandy for the Sunday tickets to WOMAD in mid-March in New Plymouth.  I hope we get home in time!