Gavin's beads

The picture below is of Gavin's new beads he was given for his first day in PSI (Jayne's hand modelling).
Each child that undergoes treatment gets a bead for their first visit, the beginning of the week, each CT scan, each proton therapy session and the end of each week. This will eventually make a necklace for Gavin to take home as a symbol of his time PSI.
The picture below is where all the kids beads are hung up beside each other. Gavin now has his own spot..

Just back from our first meeting with the guys in the hospital. They we are so very nice and went through everything about the treatment and what is involved every day.
One thing that we didnt know is because the radiation will be close to Gavin's Hip area their is a risk that he will need a Hip replacement at some stage. This is becuase that one side of his hip where the tumour was located will not grow the same as the other side..We will just have to deal with that IF it happens...
Now back to trying to find somewhere to Live for us all.. 

Gavin Birthday Breakie with Mummy

All set to go..just waiting to board now

Prep Procedure for Switzerland

24th May 2012


Back into Crumlin this week for Gavin to have a small procedure done before we got to Switzerland on Sunday for our initial meeting with the team over there. Picture below Gavin in great form as always waiting for the operation.

The team in PSI (Paul Sherrer Institute) requested that before Gavin comes over for Proton therapy they wanted the Oncology Team in Dublin to do 2 things:

1: Place Gavin's right testicle up near his hip area..Yep for all you men out there..Ooouuchhh

2: Insert Suprapubic Catheter – means you have a urinary catheter inserted into your bladder through the abdominal wall (this will allow them to fill up Gavin's bladder which will then move his bowel)

The above seems drastic but the reason they asked for this to be done is that when Gavin receives the Proton (Radiotherapy) that it does not touch of anything that it shouldn't..any other organs