Caleb has a Roommate -
he has eight legs, glow in the dark eyes and Caleb controls his every move! Visitors beware!!!
He greets all that enter! He is quick, quiet and is ready at all times! The nurses didn't even know he had moved in!
The eight legged door man was busy all day. The new roomie was there to greet members of the FOX team and Caleb was delighted with the goodies sent by the team and mommy's viewers!
Later in the day - Caleb, mommy and the roomie were treated to a little song and dance of, "Tomorrow" from the Annie soundtrack. A sweet song and a great reminder that better days are ahead!
And to top off the day! Big brother and his friend marched in ready to "beat this thing". Mr. Spider got a bit nervous until he learned their mission was to beat the leukemia not take him out! He tends to be a little sensitive. :)
Rough few days but Caleb and his family are solid and they will stand strong! Please continue to pray for healing, strength, rest and joy to be found along their journey.
Caleb will be returning to pill swallowing school tomorrow so pray specifically for that to go well. Swallowing the medicine is a vital part of his treatment and we want him to be comfortable taking them. Tomorrow he is one day closer to beating this thing!!!
Sometimes I use pudding or applesauce to help swallowing pills. Also if Caleb gets a metal taste in his mouth, try lemon drops & plastic dinnerware. If smells bother him, rub a little Vick's under his nose. I've fought NHL in 2002 & Ovarian for 2 1/2 yrs this time so I have find little tricks to help with chemo. Sending lots of prayers & thoughts to you & your family during this journey. Debra Bennett.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to take pills is probably important for you to be able to go home with Caleb. I am sure some pills have to be swallowed whole, so I am by no means trying to make suggestions you can't use. Quentin was too young to take pills and his chemo schedule was more aggressive as an infant so we didn't go home at all, but he still had plenty of pills to take once we did. I became quite the compounding pharmacist for my son.
ReplyDeleteApplesauce has become a separate food group for Quentin as he STILL uses it to take pills (the kind that can be crushed or opened) with water. We mix an entire crushed pill in one small bite of applesauce, he washes it down with water. Done. In the past when he was much younger I have used a product called Compounding Cherry Syrup (available from pharmacies) and we could mix a small amount into an empty medicine cup with the crushed pill from a pill crusher also available at pharmacies, mixed them together and sucked it into a syringe and gave him the pill orally but it was only 2-3 mL, not a tablespoon of liquid he had to drink. The cherry syrup is SO SWEET he could never taste the medicine and you needed hardly any of it.
Even if I had to "wrestle" with Quentin, we would put the medicine in as little carrier (applesauce, cherry syrup, etc.) as possible, chase it down with a regular drink, and be done with that and move on with our day. I am sure he will master the pill swallowing though as everyone eventually does! Prayers for Caleb and the Cooks!