Things, can always get worse

There's a small voice wailing in the corridor outside room 23 at the pediatric oncology ward.

A little newborn baby by the sound of it.

The parents are walking back and forth...Back and forth...Waiting for a nurse to help them...trying desperately to comfort their little one...But nothing they do can soothe the little baby's echoing cries.

So they're waiting...

That's all we do here...We wait...And wait...And wait...

They've been walking up and down the corridor for 20 minutes now...

, And I'm wondering if the little one has got a portacath...And if so; did that needle get screwed up as well? Is he or she in pain due to the cannula slipping out of the vein, causing the chemo drugs to leak out under that soft baby skin...bringing on God only knows what damage to the tissue...Until there's no more room and, the medication start wetting that white little shirt. Contaminating the skin...Possibly making him or her violently sick in a few weeks...And if nothing else, robbing him or her of the much needed effect of the chemo and, prolonging the treatment...

When the nurse finally does come. Will he or she scratch their head and, make them wait another 15 minutes for the doctor, without checking things, so that the leak isn't discovered until the little one's clothes are soaked and, the chemo meds are coming through to his or her mom's clothes as well? Spreading the toxic substances to her skin ...Perhaps making her sick...Perhaps causing a miscarriage or a birth defect in a little baby later on...And, most definitely increasing her chances of developing some kind of cancer herself in a few years...

Those are the thoughts that are going through my head, but it's of course possible that they don't screw up every day and, that little peeper and I are the only ones whom will need to worry about those things today...

And here I was worried about what the chemo in his body fluids could do to me...

On a positive note, the first chemo treatment has just proved to be successful and, the eye doctor was able to start laser treatment on all 3 tumors this time.

Yes, they're 3 now, but it's not because they have been seading... The tumor he had in his right eye turned out to be 2 that had grown together, so that they gave the impression of being one bigger tumor instead of 2 smaller ones. Apparently there was a suspicion of that after the EUA last time, but nobody saw fit to let us know about that particular little detail....

I suppose though, that ultimately it doesn't change anything. The treatment will go on according to plan - a plan that they probably screwed up big time now that most of the Etopocide ended up under and on little Peeper's skin and, the rest found it's way to mine...

All the oncologist had to say about it was that it was "unfortunate" but it happens and, the eye doctor said that he didn't think it should have that much of an impact; but nobody knows how much, if any, of the drug that he actually received. I guess we can be grateful that it was one of those that one should just wash off with soap and water if it ends up on the skin; there are others that are caustic...

So, as always, it could be worse...

There's another little girl here, at 6 and a half months, who's got the same diagnosis as our little miracle. She has however not been as lucky and, has after 6 chemo treatments lost one of her eyes, while the tumors in the other one has proved to be more aggressive than they thought. She will now have to go through another cycle of chemo therapy with stronger drugs, which hopefully will save at least some of her eyesight.

In the light of that, we're incredibly lucky...And, it could be worse...