Day -9 1st day of conditioning

Day -9 started early down in radiology at 7:00 am . The total body radiation takes about 30 minutes. 15 minutes on each side. He is premedicated with benadryl and hydrocortisone iv 1 hr before so he is fairly sleepy during the procedure. The nausea hit about an hour after the morning session. Luckily it started after breakfast so he was able to enjoy that. The afternoon session of radiation started at 1pm. The nausea had subsided and so the afternoon was spent doing homework, working out with the physical therapist and throwing the football around the room with mom. The UCLA teacher dropped by with an assessment test followed by a 30 minute private session with the child psychiatrist. The psychiatrist shared with me a question he asked Dale. The question was "If you had three wishes, what would they be?" Dale replied, " peace, everyone gets to be treated equal and nobody would get hurt anymore." The psychiatrist then asked if he had any wishes for himself and Dale replied "no". He later told me it was apparent that the church and his faith are a big influence in Dale's life. If Dale's wishes come true, the world will be a better place. The days are long but somehow with God's grace we get through the day. Dale started to practice his violin and actually drew a small crowd of nurses who came to listen. He played "Shine Jesus Shine" for them. A big thank you to Dale's blood and platelet donors. His hemoglobin is already down to 9 and Hct at 28. They will transfuse when Hgb drops to 7 and the Hct 20. His platelets yesterday were holding steady at 210,000. I think they tranfuse when it gets down to 30,000 or less. The staff at UCLA is wonderful. We are still getting acquainted with their system. We miss Millers but I'm sure in time we will get used to the routine here. Thank you Auntie Wendy for sitting with Dale while I went to hula. Thank you all for your love and support. Thank you for the cards,letters and emails . Your words of encouragment warm our hearts and rejuvanate our spirit.
Grace and peace to you all
Juliann