This Machine Killed Cancer

Rebekah, here. Quick update.

Shayne got his wisdom tooth out yesterday, which as most things so far have gone, seemed almost like a Charlie Chaplin movie.

We were shuffled to one floor. Folks shrugged their shoulders. We went to another floor, they nodded that we were in the right place. We sat and waited. Shayne had so much blood drawn from him that it (almost) seemed comical (if we pretended that it was actually cherry syrup). We were then ushered to another floor for a chest x-ray (Shayne’s fever still hadn’t gone away so his oncologist was worried that his infection was still not completely gone). The receptionist responded to me like I was speaking in a foreign language (chances are I actually was) when I tried to explain that I needed to give Shayne IV antibiotics before he was seen. Basically nothing about it was a normal day at the hospital, but at the same time it was just like our everyday.

Unfortunately the fun didn’t stop for Shayne once he got to the dentist’s chair. A procedure that was only supposed to take a bit of time continued well beyond what he should have endured (it lasted two hours). There was even a break for xrays in the middle because his tooth was so twisted up in his jaw. When they had to bring in a stronger dentist because his tooth wouldn’t let go of it’s hold, it could have been slapstick if it wasn’t clear that Shayne was in so much pain that he’d sweat through his shirt and had his iPod on top volume.

He left the hospital dazed and with a mouthful of gauze saying that he’d rather have brain biopsy then get the rest of his wisdom teeth removed.

The silver lining is that today, I can see the color in his his cheeks and his fever hasn’t shown up again. His jaw is swollen, but that’s manageable. With this out of the way, he’s now back on track for the bone marrow transplant and the light at the end of this tunnel is getting a little bit more focused.