Today was a day with more tests and assessments. It’s starting to get a little easier to accept that we are here and this is really happening. We are starting to learn our way around St. Jude pretty comfortably now, so overall everything is much less overwhelming.
Caleb’s assessments today included speech therapy. They tested him in 3 different categories based on identifying objects in pictures, sentence structure, etc. He scored well above average for his age in all 3 categories. I’m so proud of him for that. Then we had to get blood drawn for lab work 😬 This was not fun, but we let him eat M&Ms and he only cried for a minute because he was scared and then it was over. He was very very brave!!! Then we had a consult about anesthesia because he will go under again tomorrow for his MRI. This will be his third MRI so we’re pretty familiar with this process and all the types of anesthesia. The thing I like about their protocols is that they let parents be with the child until the child is asleep so that way the kid is never scared to be away from Mom and Dad. Last he had a head x-ray which is just standard before the MRI for mapping purposes. And that was our day pretty much.
I’m working on unpacking a few more of our things to make this place feel more like home. But I started getting very nervous tonight, like that feeling deep in the pit of your stomach that won’t go away kind of nervous! And that’s because tomorrow’s MRI and Lumbar puncture will tell us what stage his cancer is at. We are hoping for stage 0, which means his tumor was completely removed, nothing is growing back, and there are no cancerous cells present in his spinal fluid. We will post an update when we know results which won’t be until later tomorrow evening. These results are EVERYTHING because it will decide the course of his treatment, which could include another surgery if anything else is still growing.
In other news, we had to find Tyler a school since we have officially moved our lives here. This one hurt me a lot because I loved his other school soooo much. But we found a wonderful school that not only has amazing classrooms and curriculum but also has current and past St Jude families. They understand what we are going through and are very understanding about what Tyler may be feeling in any given day. I think it will be good for Tyler to get back in a routine and make some friends!
So, I know we will do whatever we have to for Caleb, but I’m still nervous for all that is about to happen over the next few weeks! It’s a lot…. a lot for Caleb to handle, a lot to try to explain to Tyler, and a lot for us to try to stay strong through. But we are trying, and I know we will.
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