Sunday we were still at CHEO waiting for neutrophils to go up so this superhero has his infection fighting superpower again. It was a long day that started with his disappointment at not being able to go home. The doctor offered him a day pass or even just to go outside for a walk. He responded, "What's the point?! I'll only have to come back here and it'll be worse!" My sentiments exactly. Sometimes it's best to just power through.
Late that afternoon he asked to have the special G-CSF injection that could stimulate his neutrophils. He said if it would make it more likely for him to go home for sure on Monday he wanted it. Apparently it is very expensive (so grateful again that we are Canadian!), so they warned him that he couldn't waffle on it as it had a short shelf life and the doctor wouldn't order it twice. He committed and was scared, but did it with minimal crying.
The beautiful thing is that it worked! Monday morning his neutrophils were up to 1.2 from a scary 0.2 (no wonder he got an infection!!!). The nurse shared the news and Ollie was so excited he was dancing. Then she said it might take a while to get our discharge orders. When Ollie asked how long and she said sometime in the afternoon after rounds, he was mad again! I am not kidding when I say that CHEO nurses are angels as about 30 minutes after she left, she returned and told me if I didn't have any questions for the doctors, they'd already signed the discharge orders and she'd unplug Ollie from his IV and we could go. Again there was dancing and profound thanking. While I packed up, Ollie enjoyed some Christmas carols compliments of a quartet that came by to play for 4 North.
By 10:30 am we were on our way home for Christmas!
More packages and goodies awaited us from friends and family!
This evening, my colleague and friend, Jennifer stopped by for a little visit to bring us incredibly generous Christmas presents from my work team. I have always loved working with this team at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat because they are not only colleagues, but friends after 9 years of working with them. They are among the kindest people I have ever worked with and honestly the big reason I have stayed there longer than I have ever worked anywhere before. The kids were thrilled with their gifts and we were all wowed by their generosity and thoughtfulness.
Finally, Ollie wanted to shave his head because the hair loss was too itchy, so Uncle Vic and Daddy followed through on their promise to shave their heads too. We had lots of laughs, and three handsome guys in the end.
Thanks to all of these beautiful and thoughtful gestures, Ollie feels strong and like you're all in this with him, even when it's hard. We have, however, reminded him that while he has been spoiled lately by so many, this does not make him the centre of the universe and that he should be grateful, but not expect more as people have already been overly generous and it can't be Christmas every day for his 6-8 months of treatment.
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