Pads as the Ood

Pads as the Ood, originally uploaded by agent_mikejohnson.

It was the kidney function (GFR) and audiology tests today.
The GFR involves putting amitop cream to dull the pain of the needle which is for an injection of radioactive dye. Thereafter regular blood samples are taken to establish how well the kidneys are clearing out the dye. We won't know the results of that for a while.
In the gap after the injection, we toddled down to the audiology clinic. It seemed for a moment like his left ear was showing a significant loss, but then the audiologist tested his hearing with another type of headset that checks hearing through the bone, rather than the ear. Then, testing the pressure behind his eardrums with another bit of kit, she concluded that the left ear has gunk behind it residual from a cold - good news. So there's no noticeable deficit to his hearing this time.
We returned to the ward. Pads amused himself by making a mask out of one of the Dr Who activity books. This, together with bags of Dr Who goodies for the ward, were donated by the owner of the Dr Who exhibition in Cardiff Bay. Meanwhile, at Cardiff Bay, the boys were doing this:

From Birthdays

On a tea-run, the consultant stopped me to talk about the plans. We'll firm up on Thursday, but it seems we'll be waiting until the 15th to start the hi-dose chemo. Certainly his blood counts today indicate that he's too low to go for it this Sunday. Indeed, our stay in day-beds today was prolonged by the need for platelets. The threshold is 30 and his count was 27. To avoid the reaction last time he had hydrocortisone and piriton to pre-empt it, which was successful. And he had a pleasant evening with his brothers, playing together on the wii.

Audiology OK again

Fair play to Pads - having been quite ill at 7:10 this morning (it really rushes upon him with about 20 seconds warning), he made it out for the audiology clinic at 8:30
This is a painless test to see if the platinum-based chemo is causing him hearing loss. The previous test showed that cisplatin had permanently reduced his ability to hear at very high frequencies: hardly noticably in fact. We all wanted to know if the carboplatin would do the same. The good news was that his hearing showed no further detriment. If it had worsened again then the medical team may well have decided to stop giving him carboplatin and he needs all the chemo he can take to avoid a recurrance of the tumour.
Tonight, Mum's taken him to sort out a few items for school tomorrow - his first day of secondary education at WICS. Moli is VERY excited at the prospect of showing him around.