May 30, 2008

PBMT - Day 172

Despite the heaving pouring in the morning, Adrian arrived at the TCM clinic at 10am sharp. It's been 3 weeks since he last had the TCM appointment and Adrian has been a real social butterfly during the entire visit this time! He said Hi and Bye to almost everyone at the clinic/corridor and it's the first time someone made a comment on Adrian saying that he's being very social!!! Kids are very unpredictable at times... Adrian is doing well as per the doctor and once again, we got 21 doses of TCM for Adrian to drink it daily. Next appointment will be in 3 weeks' time - on Jun 20th.

May 25, 2008

PBMT - Day 167

We paid a visit at QM this morning - the visit was not planned but well needed only because Adrian had scratched off the dressing as well as the 3M micropore surgical tape! There's no blood on his wound, however, the 3M tape was supposed to hold the wound close so as to avoid any future cracking. The nurse said the dressing is needed for another week and we have to keep a close eye on Adrian now just so he won't scratch it off again. Apart from the QM visit, we took Adrian to The Cricket Club again in the evening. We have been going to The Cricket Club almost every weekend now... Adrian enjoys playing bubbles/ball on the grass and after we had dinner each time, we'll let him play inside the kids' playroom for a while before heading home. We are going to slowly expose Adrian to the outside world and trying to avoid the crowds!

May 24, 2008

PBMT - Day 166

The 3rd session of ST got canceled today (will be postponed) because the therapist was sick. Instead, we brought Adrian to check out a great indoor playroom in Cyberport. We went for the morning session where we got the spend a good 75 mins in a 8,000 sq ft big playroom. The playroom itself has different sections/toys for kids at different age for stimulation and it's a bit overwhelming the first time. We ran into Esther Kwan Wing Ho and her daughter inside the Multi-Sensory Fun Land. Apparently Adrian and her daughter, Brittany are the only two kids there who are under the age of 3! We all had so much fun but Adrian is again very shy and has a very severe stranger anxiety. He has to meet more people slowly once his immue system gets stronger. This playroom is a great idea...

Adrian got so distracted even before the session. And, Papa was the ONLY dad there at the playroom!!


Adrian is very gentle... when compared to other kids there!

May 23, 2008

PBMT - Day 165

Adrian had the physio session at DK this morning. Again, Adrian sat on the ball while he played on various toys for his hand motor skills. Later, he was put on the trampoline and he's a lot better in balancing this time that he didn't need to be held at all times while he's on it. The Therapist also commented Adrian is better toned in his body muscles though there's still rooms to improve. After the next session on Monday, we won't need to go there as often - maybe once every two weeks.

May 22, 2008

PBMT - Day 164

With Adrian's treatment come to an end, it's about time to start getting the necessary medical records from the hospital so Sick Kids' doctor can follow up on his case when we return home in the near future. Mama got the request form from QM during our visit yesterday and has had a difficult time filling it. At first we thought we'd get EVERYTHING but after talking to the staff at the ward and realizing Adrian's file made up of at least a few yellowpages thick of record, we banned this idea. Now we have to come up with a list of items we really wanted. At least we still have a month's time to fill out the form as we'll hand in the form on Adrian's next QM appointment on June 23rd as a day patient!

May 21, 2008

PBMT - Day 163

Adrian has had the central line since Feb 2007 for chemo & blood work all through the entire treatment process so that he doesn't need to be poked each time. It was a glorious day for all of us especially Adrian since the central line was officially removed from his chest meaning the end of the treatment! We arrived QM early this morning as Adrian was required to fast before the procedure due to sedation. While the doctor was preparing the forceps for the procedure, Mama casually mentioned Adrian has been fiddling the tube lately and that the cuff has been completely exposed. The doc then had a peek at Adrian's line and then suggested the line removal can be done quickly WITHOUT sedation!!! Yes - Mama was totally stunned and without much thoughts, the doc and the nurse have already begun pulling the line and nonetheless, Adrian was weeping! It was a bit scary to see doc skillfully pulled the tube using the forcep while cutting the tiny little skin attaching to the cuff. The whole procedure lasted less than 15 mins and everyone in the ward was so proud of our little Adrian, who wasn't given any sedation for the line removal AT ALL!!! Adrian then had some rest when Mama was busy getting prescriptions and paying hospital fees at different floors. Later, Adrian was all cheered up with the nurses as if nothing had happened... Well done, Adrian!!!

Mission Complete - Big thanks to this Hickman tube.

May 20, 2008

PBMT - Day 162

Adrian didn't have a nap this afternoon, instead he was all dressed up to go to QM for the BAEP test. The test was supposed to start at 4pm but Adrian was so hypered that he didn't fall asleep after half an hour even with sedation. Mama was so worried that the appointment might have to be canceled and so she literally tried everything in order to make Adrian sleep. Lastly, she acted like a manual swing where she carried Adrian like a rice bag and swayed him to the left & right, left & right and he finally passed out in seconds. Because it was the last appointment of the day, we got a chance to talk to the nurse who performed the test after Adrian was finished on the preliminary result. Apparently, Adrian's left ear remains the same as last time that he can only hear 40 db or above but hearing ability for right ear deteriates a bit that he can only hear 50 db or above. The threshold for the test is 30 db which means both his ears are slightly impared due to chemo.



May 17, 2008

PBMT - Day 159

Adrian had his 2nd session of ST training at Caritas this morning. It didn't run very smoothly as Adrian was too shy to perform the tasks. First, he refused ANYONE to touch his face while the therapist was demonstrating how to massage his face to strengthen his face/mouth muscles. Second, he didn't want us to put a toothbrush like sponge into his mouth for the purpose of massaging his gum/teeth. Overall, Adrian didn't cooperate at all and let's hope he'll be more comfortable when Mama did it with him at home. The priority now is to increase Adrian's sensation in his mouth, build up his mouth muscles as this will help in both chewing and talking tremendously.

May 15, 2008

PBMT - Day 157

We got a call from the nurse at C6 this afternoon informing us about the preliminary CT Scan result. The doctor has reviewed it and said everything looks all right (not much change compared to the previous Scan in March) and we can go ahead with removing Adrian's Central Line as planned. We've also agreed on the date on the phone and Adrian is booked to return to QM on May 21st for the line removal and the doctor will explain to us in more details about his Scan result that time.

May 13, 2008

PBMT - Day 155

Last night was the first night in more than 20 months where Adrian shared the same bedroom with Mama & Papa. He wasn't quite used to the new environment and needed Mama to keep him company for awhile before falling asleep. It was already better than we'd expected. Adrian woke up early for the CT Scan appointment this morning. We arrived C6 at 10:00 and unfortunately we didn't get assigned a bed but had to wait in the corridor because there were many patients in the ward. To top it off, Adrian refused to drink the contrast and after much struggling, Mama made him drink about 70 ml but he threw up everything after sedation! He got so tired from the struggling and vomiting that he fell asleep in no time which made the Scan ran through smoothly. We won't know the result until our next visit on May 20th!

May 12, 2008

PBMT - Day 154

We are ready for the big move today. We disembled the crib right after Adrian finished napping this afternoon and assembled it again in our bedroom. It'll be a challenge tonight to fetch Adrian asleep in a totally strange area though we've tried our very best to make it look more alike with his own room. Hope he'll get a good sleep as he'll need to be up early tomorrow.... The CT Scan is scheduled tomorrow and Adrian is required to fast after 07:30 which means he'll need to finish breakfast by then.

May 11, 2008

PBMT - Day 153

We bought everything we needed for our bedroom partitioning over the weekend and finished installing them. It looks exactly how we wanted it and we are very pleased with the result. Mama didn't get any present for Mothers' day but Adrian did (Mama got Adrian some toys at a toy warehouse)! Instead, we all dined out and spent a nice evening at The Cricket Club where Adrian got a chance to stretch out and play outdoors. Here's some pictures:





May 10, 2008

PBMT - Day 152

We took Adrian to Caritas for his first Speech Therapy session this morning. The session lasted 50 mins and it was mainly a pre-screening and assessment for Adrian. In conclusion, the Therapist finds that Adrian is pretty weak with his mouth motor skills and he definitely needs some serious training before he can actually talk. In fact, Adrian does make a lot of sound lately but with no meanings. The Therapist suggested we get some toys such as a play kitchen cooking sets & toys so we can talk to him using simple conversation like "cut the veggies", "spoon".. etc. and he can pick up simple wordings this way. Apart from the ST session, we were out looking at different stores during Adrian's nap time to get ideas on how to implement the partition in our bedroom.... 2 more days to go!

May 9, 2008

PBMT - Day 151

We have been pretty busy lately reorganizing/redesigning our bedroom to accomodate Adrian! Currently, Adrian has his own bedroom and we have ours. But we are going to share our bedroom with Adrian so his room can be spared for uncle who will be coming home early next week. After brainstorming several ideas, we finally settled in partitioning the room with a rod & curtain.

May 8, 2008

PBMT - Day 150

We headed to Central this morning for Adrian's TCM appointment. Two Aunties dropped by to see Adrian which made the waiting more pleasant. Adrian showed his tongue to the doctor for the first time without Mama using the trick (i.e. his toothbrush). Doc said Little Adrian is doing well by looking at his palm and tongue and he's prescribed 21 doses of TCM this time. We later met up with Papa at the Crocs store and had Adrian tried out the Crocs before heading home. Apparently we are thinking of getting a pair for Adrian as casual wear or maybe as slippers at home. Adrian seemed to enjoy his first shoe fitting experience and he looks really cute on them.

Adrian at the corridor outside the TCM clinic.

May 6, 2008

PBMT - Day 148

With the amount of hair growing on Adrian's head these days, we are seriously thinking of giving Adrian a proper hair wash real soon. It's been more than a year since we last washed his hair and Mama is now clueless as to how to do it! Not to exaggerate the situation, but the last time he still had hair at 10 months old, it was easy to hold him on one hand and wash his hair on the other hand by placing him on the counter top. Now that he's at 13 kg, we are thinking of what's the easiest way to do the hair wash. We'll have to really think about it....

Adrian enjoys playing with the blocks.

He is very focused...

Some of his masterpiece...

May 5, 2008

PBMT - Day 147

It's amazing we only stay at QM less than an hour every week ever since the Oncology Ward has moved to C6. Due to the renovation in progress, the temporary ward at C6 is only half a size of the previously known K8N. Therefore we are asked to leave whenever we are done with line care and blood work. They will let us know of the blood result next week. So the result we got today was actually from last week's (April 28th). Adrian's Neutrophils level seem to have reached a bottle neck where it got stuck within the 1 level and today's result even hit below 1 at 0.74. Though we are not overly concerned - given his other figures look all right (HGB at 12 & Platelet at 213). We'll be back on May 13th for line care, blood work and most importantly - the CT Scan.

May 2, 2008

PBMT - Day 144

We had our Physio session at DK this morning. Adrian was a bit shy at the beginning and later got warmed up with the Therapist. Again, Adrian sat on the Gym Ball for toning up his body muscles while playing some toys for his hand motor skills training. Later the Therapist put up some steps like hurdles where Adrian had to go through to throw the beanbag into the basket. It was fun and Adrian didn't want to leave even after the session is finished. There's also a Motor Skills Assessment scheduled for Adrian on June 4th by the Occupational Therapist to see his progress.