Who is this kid?

So as you know, we didn’t hook Eli up to TPN (total parental nutrition) last night because his electrolytes were too high and they didn’t want us to add to that. Today, Eli woke up at 9am and jumped out of bed being silly and hasn’t slown down since. Not once did he throw up. Let me repeat that. Eli went the entire day without once throwing up. This is after weeks of throwing up at least 2 if not 3 times every day. He also hasn’t been hunching over with tummy pain or being fidgety. Another improvement has been with his eating and drinking. Without feeling nauseous so much, Eli is actually wanting to eat and drink! Lacey’s quetion today sums it up, “Who is this kid?” So you can be sure that I was on a mission to get the TPN stopped for good today. Thankfully Dr. Kayton (the surgeon) said that Eli’s wound has healed over and that he feels the nutrition did the trick in helping it along in it’s healing and he didn’t see the need for it anymore. He also said, “Well, theoretically I guess the TPN could contribute to him feeling sick.” There is no theory in my mind, it’s always been fact. One of the nurses said today, “Haven’t you been saying that TPN was the culprit all along?” 🙂 The Neuroblastoma team was a bit more hesitant to agree to just stopping it, but thankfully the nutrition team told them there was no harm in just stopping cold turkey, so they went ahead and said we could stop it! So today was a really good day, even though we were in the hospital for several hours doing labs and checkups. We still have Eli on hydration because he isn’t drinking enough for maintenance, but that is basically sugar water, so there is no sickness associated with that. We are just so happy to not have to deal with a sore tummy and vomitting all day long and to see Eli running around playing like normal.

Here is a picture of Eli’s wound right after we returned to the Ronald in the beginning of August (dated 8/3/08):

Here is a picture of Eli’s wound today:

From Inpatient in July

We had yet ANOTHER Iowan at the NY Ronald McDonald House today! Jade Pospeshil is Mason’s dad (carepage name: carepageformason) and came up to NYC for work. He is staying a mile away from the house, so he hoofed it up to surprise us with a hello! It was great to finally meet him in person. We’ve followed Mason’s page from day one since he was diagnosed with Rhabdo and he’s been doing great at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. Jade was appropriately attired in a cyclone shirt and hat. 🙂 He sat with us and the Larson’s at dinner as well as with Griffin and his dad Lou, who Jade had met through Griffin’s CaringBridge site since Griffin also has Rhabdo. We’re looking forward to tailgating with the Pospeshil’s and meeting Mason at an ISU game this fall sometime.

Tomorrow is the dental surgery. We have to be there at 9:40am and his surgery is at 11:40am. We’ll let all of you prayer warriors know how he does.