And the blood transfusions continue

David continues to do well with the blood transfusions.  By his second transfusion, I was declared "independent" in my ability to administer the transfusion by myself, so I have been on my own since then.  Even with all of my nursing training and my experiences of sticking needles into people, I was never prepared for having to stick a needle into my own child.  The first time I had to do it, I was sick to my stomach.  It was also troubling to then sit down next to my child to cuddle with him as blood components from 70+ donors entered his little body.  I'm hoping that as time goes on, the experience will get a little bit easier for me.

David is the trooper in the whole experience.  Even through the torture of removing the sticky tape that holds the needle into place, David never complains.  He likes to help and be a part of the process in any way he can including turning the pump on to start the transfusion.  He even finds joy and humor out of the transfusion process as he shared with us this past Monday.  We have to rotate sites used for the transfusion, so we used his thigh as opposed to his abdomen on Monday evening.  When the transfusion is done, there is a large lump under the skin where the fluid takes time to be absorbed into the body.  Because the transfusion was done on David's leg, the lump was much more noticeable, and it was inches directly above his knee.  Once the needle was out and the injection site bandaged, David stood up, looked down at his leg and said, "Hey, look!  I've got 2 knees on my leg!"  Thinking he was disturbed by this discovery, I quickly reassured him that the swelling would go down overnight and be almost gone by the morning.  He then responded, "Oh man!  I want it to stay so I can make people laugh!"

It is so evident that the joy of the Lord is David's strength, even though David is only 5 years old.  His faith is so strong and his trust in God so sincere.  I pray that God would help me to find such strength in my joy of the Lord as well!