Georgie’s Journey

Today was day 4 of chemo. He had another wonderful day. I don’t know how kids have so much energy. I played more today with George then I think I have ever played with all of my kids combined. I’m beat and he is still going strong. Energizer Bunny.

Day 3 of chemo and by the grace of God,  George has shown no sign of slowing down. Today was another great day. He played and played and jumped and jumped and danced and played some more. He has the best attitude and is always happy and courteous to everyone. Even the ones who poke at him. His appetite has decreased some but that seems to be it. I feel like the following bible verse was specifically written for George. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you.  Isaiah 41:10

Today was a good day. He did have a more intensive chemo given to him but it only lasted 4 hours instead of 6. He felt a little sick after but really just tired. Still having fun with all his toys and still winning the hearts over of every staff that walks in the room. Thankful for another good day. This God, His way is perfect.   Psalm18:30

Day one went surprisingly well. He played in the room through the 6 hour treatment and never seemed bothered at all. As the treatment was finished he did get a high fever and just wanted to be held. After some Motrin he was back to playing and had a great night sleep. We will begin our 4 hour more intense chemo dose today at 10 so hopefully he will fair as well as he did yesterday.  A dear friend suggested me getting him a specialty hospital mask that would be more tolerable to wear when he needed to. Well, we will need to work on our form because George hasn’t quite figured out the correct way to wear it. Keeping us laughing through the stressful times.

This morning at 10am George starts his intensive chemo. Prayers for this boy please. The side effects are terrifying. Pray for protection for his organs to not be permanently damaged. Prayers for his strength throughout the next 9 days of this treatment. Prayers for my strength. Just please continue to pray.   I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4

Well the past two days have been jam packed. I’m not quite sure how much more fun George could be having. This hospital is something else. I can not even believe how well they treat us day after day and how much they care for their patients. Yesterday, July 25th, we were awakened to Santa coming into our room and bringing George a fabulous wooden castle play set. Santa also brought in the local news crew. They interviewed us and were tickled by how excited George was. Not 30 min after Santa left, Cricket the clown came for a visit. She made us laugh and brought some fun treats as well. We finished the morning off with Art with a Heart and made some clay sharks. This was all before 10am.  George rode the high all day. He was featured on the 12 o’clock news as well as the evening news. He is now a local celebrity 😂.       Today he was suppose to move into his new “transplant” room but since he doesn’t begin chemo until Sunday we convinced them to let us stay in our normal room until tom

Kate had a dr appointment today at Nemours for her part of the transplant so she was able to pop by for some hugs and fun. She picked the right time to come too. Dairy Queen sent over their portable ice cream truck and handed out blizzards. George also got a visit from a service dog named Libby. He continually is receiving wonderful toys from the nurses and so he had a fun day of putting together race tracks and car sets. He felt great all day and has been running all over the place and visiting all the employees on our floor. I’m not sure how anyone gets any work done with George around. He should sleep great tonight from all the steps he put in today.

After a great night sleep last night, George woke up happy and hungry. He was ready to resume his playful self. He has been thriving all day and only needed pain medicine one time early this morning. He also has been hired on as Wolfsons newest member of maintenance. If you need any repairs let  us know. He will be honing his craft in the meantime. Today was a good day.

We came in this morning for George’s CT scan, port placement and PIC line placement. What was suppose to be a 2.5 hour surgery took almost 6. After he woke up he was struggling. His heart rate was super high and his breathing was rapid. He was taken for 2 separate sets of xrays. Thank goodness they came back clear. The dr thinks that his lungs collapsed some from being under sedation for so long. He is being monitored still for that and his high heart rate. He is still pretty out of it but is relaxing with a snack now. This day did not go as I had imagined it would. Please pray for his heart rate to regulate as well as his lungs. Also for him to have a peaceful night. Although he is on some good pain medicine he is still in a lot of pain and discomfort. Tomorrow is a new day and we will rejoice for now that he is awake, alert and eating. Oh and we have the absolute best nurses watching him. One even prayed over me and him while the stress level was high earlier.

Well, I guess this all comes with the territory but once again the plan has changed. Its almost laughable that I have to make this post a day after I posted his "final plan". Like I said before, it is not our timing, it is God's timing. George will be checking in the hospital this Monday as scheduled for his scans, his Port placement and now his PIC line as well. After these surgeries he will then be checking into the hospital on Weaver 4 (hematology and oncology floor) for good. They want for him to stop taking his medicine so that it doesn't complicate things in his transplant and so they feel the safest place for him to be is in the hospital. So now we hug on each other and spend the last few days soaking up family time and doing laundry and packing. Even though it is only 5 days ahead of schedule it still seems so overwhelming. It is now literally here. 3 more days of normalcy for awhile.

Ok, here is the latest plan. Hopefully this will be the one that sticks. Monday July 22nd George will check into the hospital and have a CT scan done on his lungs, stomach and heart. While he is under they will go ahead and place his port which will be in the center of his chest. He will not have to sleep over that night. This will be an outpatient procedure. He will be able to continue taking his medicine (Neupegen) through Thursday the 25th. On Friday the 26th  he will check into the hospital for  the long haul. He will then receive his  PIC line. He will begin chemo on Sunday the 28th. He will have daily “intensive” chemo therapy for the next 10 days. On August 5th Kate checks in and gets her marrow harvested. George will receive her marrow on the 6th. Kate will be able to check out of the hospital that day. August 6th will be George’s new “birthday”. Not really, we will always celebrate on his actual birthday which is April 7th but this will be the day his new life begins so it wil

Sunday night George seemed to be off a little and by 2am I was headed to the ER with him because he was running a fever. We were admitted because his blood work came back and his counts were zeroed out. After 2 rounds of Xrays and many many tests we were released this evening because everything came back negative. Praise the Lord. No one knows where the fever came from. It only lasted a few hours that night and hasn’t reoccurred. We will head back to Nemours tomorrow for a meeting with his transplant team to see if we can still proceed with the latest schedule of events. He will be needing to get some more scans done this coming Monday to make sure his lungs are fully healed. He is also now on a lot more medication. Prayers for his tiny body to start eating better and for his organs to be able to handle all of these medications. So happy to be home again to catch up on some sleep. I will let you know how the appointment goes tomorrow and if there is any new news or change of events as

     I just heard from George's transplant team and have the new itinerary for him and Kate. So if all goes well between now and then, George will be admitted into the hospital and receive his port and PIC line on July 25th. He will begin his chemotherapy on the 26th and will continue this through August 5th. Kate will be admitted and have her part of the surgery on August 5th. If all goes well on her end then she will be released on the 6th.             George will continue on his Neupogen shots through June 19th to help him fully heal from his tonsillectomy. We have a ton of testing and scans for both kids in the next two weeks leading up to George's admission date. So right now we will let George heal and then try once again to keep all the kids healthy so that this date can stick. I feel good going into this but it still is heavy thinking about all that is about to happen. For now we will just prepare for everything at home as far as getting the girls ready for back to sch

Today George has his adenoids and tonsils removed. The surgery went great and he is recovering just as he should be. A lot of tears shed today from his pain but he has already been eating and playing with toys so that is a good sign that the pain meds indeed work. I am not sure when we will be released but it should only be a short stay. His nap was a non snoring one which he hasn’t had since he was born. It was a cool thing to hear, or rather not to hear.