Countdown to June 20th!

Since the month of June arrived, MJ grows more nervous. He's talking about his fears and concerns with Matt, his counselor at school. I'm learning to listen whenever he talks to me about it. When I bring the subject up or try to clarify something, he covers his ears saying "That's too much information! I don't want to talk about it!"

I find myself split during the day from feeling moments of sheer panic, or become irritable and restless. I'm sleeping less than usual getting three or four solid hours. Whenever I speak to his surgeon I feel better. We are completely confident in him which helps a great deal. Can't say enough good things about the folks at the NSF forums and SpineKids. Spending a lot of time of reading the posts there too.

On June 11th he gets blood work before having the 3rd shot out of four Procrit series. The first shot he handled well. The second one hurt him. MJ said the medicine burns going in his arm. He said "my veins are burning!" His dad did a good job getting him to move his arm and work it to get the meds moving. MJ hasn't had a reaction to Procrit so far.

I bought the book Prepare for Surgery, Heal Fasterand Peggy Huddleston's Relaxation/Healing CD plus Instructional CDfor him. This book is not for children so I've been reading it. Hopefully the cd will be helpful while MJ is in the operating room.

On June 12th we take him for pre-op blood work. Marlon and Crystal are donating blood. Then we attend the Meet Me At Mount Sinai program. I purchased the paper, Preparing children and families for surgery: Mount Sinai's multidisciplinary perspective.(surbeys): An article from: Pediatric Nursing After reading it I'm really excited about attending this program.