Readying to approach home base

Ollie is feeling cheeky lately and working his vulnerable situation to his advantage, begging us using his poor little cancer boy sad face when he wants something. LOL

When Abby and I were braving the pandemic in Toronto, Ollie was getting stronger and healing. His neutrophils are way back up now and his infections have healed. He is getting out of bed more now and even danced one night when McKenzie was here and encouraged him. 

He had his broviac implanted on Wednesday at the same as he had another lumbar puncture with intrathecal chemo for maintenance. 

 

The broviac replaces the short lived larger PICC that had to be taken out shortly after being inserted due to a bacterial infection in the central line. He's been managing for the last week with a temporary IV called a long, but they were able to take that out yesterday. 

His belly looks pink from the cleaner/antiseptic that they used in his surgery, but overall his skin has healed well, he no longer has pain and he's feeling so much better.

He's also sleeping a lot better and he is back to smiling more, especially when he's being mischievous. I still long to hear a spontaneous big belly laugh from him. The kind we really took for granted before and would do anything to hear again. Childhood is supposed to be about laughter, noise and mess. I can't wait to have that again. Funny what you miss...

I finally solved our temporary housing problem by renting a short term condo down the street from Sick Kids Hospital for all of us to be together safely pre-transplant. We are so grateful to all who have contributed to the fundraising efforts for us, as you have have made it possible for us to keep paying our bills at home, while also having this dedicated space in Toronto. 

Given the fact that the experts are now saying that it could be months before it's safe to return to daily activities and other provinces have suspended school indefinitely, we may well be in Toronto together for a longer haul. In fact, Ollie's transplant date has now been pushed back a week to April 16 with him being admitted on the 11th, while Abby's harvesting has been moved up to March 30 and they now intend to freeze her stem cells. We believe this is partly due to a new protocol due to COVID-19 and partly to ensure that she is well before giving it to Ollie. 

Either way it means (barring any other major changes) that our family will finally be all together for two weeks before the next part. I wish that this was going to be at our own home, but Ollie has outpatient appointments in Toronto from March 23 on. So we will treat it as a staycation in a different city. The kids are disappointed that they cannot swim in the building's pool, but social distancing aside, we can't take the chance of any of us getting sick.

So we have a bunch of incredible friends and neighbors who will be at our place constantly to spend time with the kitties, and generally take care of things for however long Mario and Abby will remain in Toronto. Packing is all but done. We'll be ready.

Tomorrow Ollie has an MRI, Saturday he should finally get to come home for less than 24 hours before we leave to face the apocalypse again!

More to come...