+200

Day +200. A good even number. It feels like a milestone to us but nothing medically has changed.

It feels like 200 things went wrong today. The girls and I attended a memorial for a good friend, Skip Emerson. Michael and David were left at home. During the service my new Motorola Q started speaking to me. I was not sure what to do but turn it off. After the service, I checked my voice mail. Michael said he had something important to tell me. When I called him, he and Talitha were on their way to emergency. I drove to Stanford to meet him.

So here is what happened: Michael took David for a drive in the mountains. David got motion sickness and vomited his NG tube out. Michael safely pulled over on Hwy 17 to help him. There was not much he could do. The NG tube remained hanging out of his mouth. He drove home and cleaned him up, all the while the tube was hanging out of his mouth. Michael managed to encourage him to drink juice and water with the tube hanging out of his mouth. He tried to call everyone and only got voice messages. He decided to take him to emergency but when he got in his car he had a flat tire, most likely from pulling over on Hwy 17. My poor boys.

David looked miserable when I caught up with them at emergency. He had the tube hanging out of his mouth for 3 hours. I took him into emergency which presented another set of problems. The nurse showed me how to pull the tube out of his nose which was very easy. The problem was that they are supposed to place post BMT patients in a room immediately. I told every nurse who spoke with us that he was post BMT and immunosuppressed. When I called the oncologist on-call he was upset that they did not follow instructions. I was not about to wait in the main waiting area where children were vomiting and everyone was coughing, so it seemed. I waited near the main entrance where there was a cool breeze. We waited about 2 hours. I finally gave up. David was holding food and liquid down. He was playful and active. The tube was gone. I figured we could give his medicine by mouth until we get the tube replaced...or maybe we can say good bye to the tube forever.

The medicine he takes is bitter tasting. It did not mix well with apple juice. He did not drink it. Help!