Josh has been Deported!

Have you ever wondered what the little bump in Joshua's chest was? Did you ever wonder what it looked like? Well today's your lucky day - and Joshua's! Yesterday he had his surgery to remove his "tubie". He is still a little sore, but he is more proud of his battle scars and more interested in showing off his port, that his pain isnt anything a little Tylenol isnt taking care of.

We didnt have to drive all the way to Children's to have his port removed. The hospital has a Same-Day Surgery Center in Wexford, that is about 20 minutes closer than Pittsburgh. It was nice because it is much smaller, more intimate and we didnt have to run from one floor to the next for pre-op and post-op recovery like we were used to doing in the Hospital. Josh enjoyed the different selection of toys they had to choose from!

Once again, I forgot my camera, but I did take some pictures with my phone. I had a picture of Jon dressed in white scrubs, complete with booties over his shoes, a cap over his hair, and a mask, but after I took the picture of him holding Joshua getting ready to head into surgery, I absentmindedly shut my phone without first saving the picture. So the image inscribed in my mind will have to portray to you guys with my words.

We arrived in Wexford at 1:00, his surgery was scheduled for 2:30, and he was out of surgery by 4:00 eating a Popsicle.

As you can see he woke up in good spirits and very hungry after being NPO all day.

We got home late that night and all he could think of was eating McDonald's and showing Nathan his bandages and port.

The port itself was sewn into Joshua's chest, in the middle is a clear rubber-like gasket which accepted the needles poked through Josh's skin without error. The tube was inside of one of his arteries that led to the heart.

Having a port-a-cath wasnt necessary to receive chemotherapy, but it sure made Josh's life "easier" not having to deal with multiple pokes in the veins in his arms and hands.

Josh has a book called "A Port for Me" that he received when he was first diagnosed, but now that he is starting to read, he loves to look at this book, and he wants to take it to school along with his port for Show-N-Tell when he's allowed to go back to school. We are keeping him home for the first two days then he is on "light-duty" until his site is healed. Of course all Nathan wants to do it wrestle!

Happy Halloween

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but my digital died and this was taken with my phone - cell phones just were not meant for photography!

As you can see, Joshua and Nathan were Power Rangers, Josh is in the blue and Nate in the red. Kenni and Halie were Zombie Prom Queens. The kids had a wonderful time and I was so excited for Josh! This was his first year since diagnosis that he didnt tire out in the first 15 minutes. He ran down the street with the rest of the kids. It wasnt until the last half hour or so that he was pooped, but so was Nathan. It is amazing to see the difference in his energy. I guess we had gotten so used to seeing him one way that it was starting to appear normal. So the boys and I headed home and the girls finished off the last half hour by themselves. It was the first time they went off without us and it was a weird feeling.

Of course they got lots of goodies, I thought I had a picture of their stash piled in mountains on the table as we went through it, but it disappeared off my phone. Just as well because the picture quality was likely poor anyway.

I almost forgot to mention, during our walk we happened upon, not one, but TWO haunted "houses" set-up in our neighbors' yards. The boys ventured into both of them and made it out unscathed. They were so proud of themselves!

--Just in case you were wondering, Kaitlynn was working, not that she trick-or-treats anymore, but she usually enjoys going around the neighborhood with us.