After missing the first of Benjamin's chemo appointments, round fourteen, while quarantined for COVID it felt good to know that he'd have both David and I there to hold his hand for round fifteen.
My aunt arrived at our home to take Ella to school and the three of us were out the door shortly after. Aside from chemo I'm not in the car all too often with the kids and I realized on the drive how much I'd missed hearing his little voice chattering away from the back seat.
As we drive into the underground parking we always ask Benjamin which level he wants to park on that day and he always says P4 even when there's ample parking on any of the upper levels. He says it's because it's always so empty first thing in the morning and we get our choice of parking spot - can't argue with that logic!
Upstairs in the cancer clinic Benjamin was dismayed to see that the Playstation was out of order. Getting to play the LEGO Marvel superheroes game is a huge highlight of every treatment session. He quickly moved on to playing in the toy kitchen, whipping up imaginary dishes for David and I to pretend to eat.
Before long we heard, "Benjamin to the IV room please, Benjamin to the IV room" which is the signal that it's time to have his butterfly inserted into his port. Some days the walk down the hallway to the IV room are harder than others but this was a good day. When asked if he'd like to lie down or sit up to have the needle put in and his blood drawn he chose to sit. When it was time he asked me to cover his eyes so that he wouldn't be able to watch. It's amazing to me how he continues to grow the number of coping strategies he has, how they evolve and his ability to move on so quickly after the fearful anticipation of getting his butterfly.
Next we were off to the orange pod for his weigh-in, height measurement and blood pressure reading. Everything looked good so it was on to the exam room to wait for the doctor to perform Benjamin's check-up. When she was finished she asked if we had any questions or concerns. With Ella just shy of two years old, David and I had planned our very first vacation as a family of four. We told her we were hoping to escape to Blue Mountain with the kids for four days and wanted to make an "in case of emergency" plan with her as a fever of 38.3 degrees Celsius is considered an emergency in Benjamin's case. Normally if he spiked a fever and we were at home the plan would be to head to the Emergency Room at Sick Kids where Benjamin would have a blood test to rule out anything serious but being up north we weren't sure if the protocol would be the same. She told us that Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Orillia was closer to Blue Mountain and she assured us that they were very familiar with doing the type of bloodwork that Benjamin would require in the event of a fever. She said that in an emergent situation we would call Sick Kids to update them on the medical situation and to confirm with them that we'd be going to SMH and from there the two hospitals would connect. The doctor was so encouraging of our decision to get away as a family and it really put our minds at ease with her confidence in the abilities of the Orillia hospital that we left our appointment feeling much less anxious than we'd been before.
Benjamin's chemotherapy treatment was next and it was as smooth as can be. Again he asked for me to cover his eyes as the nurse removed his butterfly and immediately after he was skipping over to the box of stickers to make the day's selection. I seriously need to get him a sticker book instead of carrying around a stack of them in my purse that's thicker than my wallet.
As we waited for the parking garage elevator I pointed out the Sick Kids VS campaign photo wraps that were covering each of the sets of doors and wondered out loud if Benjamin's photo from his Sick Kids VS photoshoot might appear there one day. His eyes got wide and a smile began to spread across his face. "What? Really?!" he said with a grin. "Really!" I told him, beaming. Sweet boy, I thought to myself. He really has no idea that he too is one of these kids that inspires so many, both inside these walls and beyond.
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