Bone Marrows ...

Never the nicest of days, particularly so when you're without central line access and scheduled for 1pm in the afternoon. Both of which are down to us; we decided to have his central line removed, and we decided to have his bone marrow procedure moved up from Friday … Friday being Adam's birthday. Nothing to eat or drink since yesterday night, except for a little water up to 8:30am.

Adam's left hip 'ache' has intensified, we've had to resort to his pushchair today, whereas yesterday he was walking the corridors of the hospital. Add to that the discomfort from the cannula in his right arm, and the pain from the holes in his back and it's not been a particularly pleasant day. That said, Adam did spend the latter part of the afternoon on his bed, supported by no fewer than five pillows, singing daft made up songs and leaving us wondering precisely what it was they had given him during the anaesthesia. Particularly given that he slept peacefully afterwards and awoke with none of the crazed anger that usually accompanies these procedures.

He's gone from being nil-by-mouth to having to follow a restricted diet in preparation for tomorrow's FDG-PET scan. Tomorrow morning he's once again nil-by-mouth and will need another cannula inserted. This time, however, the scan is first thing in the morning and he won't be having a general anaesthetic. So should be out sooner, and won't be so bad.

Adam's central line, removed at St George's, grew two scanty Staphylococcus bacterial strains. Whether this means there was actually an infection present we don't know (I don't think you can quite make such a direct inference). However, we are keeping a close watch on Adam's temperatures to see whether the return of bone/joint pain will also be accompanied by fever which would suggest an infection was the cause of both, and that it has returned. If he remains afebrile, and the hip ache resolves itself again, we will probably end up blaming sorafenib.