Day 2

We had a free day today so we brought Gavin into Amsterdam City again to go on a Pirate Ship.
He loved it as the pictures below will show.
We got a call to say Gavin will be admitted into the Surgical Day Unit tomorrow at 11am so tonight will be our last night sleep together. Only one of us will be allowed to stay in the hospital room with him tomorrow night in prep for Thursday.

So this is what the plan is:
Wednesday 28-08-13: Admittance to Paediatric Surgical
Thursday 29-08-13: Surgery 1 (- Gavin will have an operation to remove the tumour located in his pelvis. This will be a very large and lengthy operation as it is in a very difficult place. Once the tumour is removed then the radio oncologist will place a plate around where the tumour was located which will hold all the wires need for the Brachytherapy
Friday 30-08-13: CT scan and start Brachytherapy (Every 2 hours Gavin will receive 15 mins blast of radiation. He will have to be in a special room for this 72 hour period. We can be with Gavin all the time apart from when he is getting the radiation which will be every 2 hours)
Saturday 31-08-13: Brachytherapy
Sunday 01-09-13: Brachytherapy
Monday 02-09-13: End brachytherapy
Tuesday 03-09-13 -
Wednesday 03-09-13: Surgery 2 (another operation to remove all the wires and plates needed for the Brachytherapy)

Below is a description of Brachytherapy:
"Brachytherapy is an advanced cancer treatment. Radioactive seeds or sources are placed in or near the tumour itself, giving a high radiation dose to the tumour while reducing the radiation exposure in the surrounding healthy tissues. The term "brachy" is Greek for short distance. Brachytherapy is radiation therapy given at a short distance: localized, precise, and high-tech"
How Does HDR Brachytherapy Work?
With High-Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy, thin catheters are first placed in the tumour. The catheters are then connected to an HDR afterloader. This machine contains a single highly radioactive iridium pellet at the end of a wire. The pellet is pushed into each of the catheters one by one under computer control.
The computer controls how long the pellet stays in each catheter (dwell time), and where along the catheter it should pause to release its radiation (dwell positions). With a few well-placed catheters in the tumour, HDR brachytherapy can provide a very precise treatment that takes only a few minutes. After a series of treatments, the catheters are removed, and there are no radioactive seeds left in the body.

As you can see the next 8 days are going to be very hard on Gavin, but we know he is strong as he has showed us so many times before.