One of the greatest advances in Pediatric cancer is the Central Line. It has allowed Liam to receive hydration and iv antibiotics at home. He has rarely needed an IV started in his little arms. We were able to have blood drawn day after day without any painful needle sticks. Our love hate relationship was a good one that ended  October 7th  when it was surgically removed a HUGE milestone for us. It cements in our lives that we are done. Sure we will have blood drawn monthly and have an iv placed when we are doing scans but the everyday flushing, maintaining, weekly dressing changes and bathing restrictions are done! I took maintaining Liam’s line very seriously.  Infections of the central line can be life threatening.   So it was a fair bit of luck, prayers and my near obsessive line care that kept us safe.   Liam’s counts are recovering slowly but that was the predicted  recovery from back to back bone marrow transplants. We left it up to chance whether his central line would be removed before or after our Wish Trip to Disney World.  Liam’s counts were good enough and it all seemed to fall into place as if we planned it.  It would have been a huge bummer to have a central line while on vacation but with a little help from above it all turned out perfectly. It took Liam 3 days to notice that his tubies were gone. We didn’t talk about them with worry he might be upset. I wish I had video taped the moment he noticed it was adorable and he was very happy to not need them any more. With pride he shows off the scar on his chest where they once were.

We have never told Liam that he had cancer. I bet he would recognize the word neuroblastoma but he has know idea that is what he had. I plan to keep it that way until he asks specifically. He knows he was super sick and that doctors and nurses helped his body fight to get better. I answer questions creatively and I give no more info than he requests. The idea that Liam may not remember any of the pain he endured is such a blessing. That would be the best case scenario. We are always working to write over bad memories with great ones.