Jack to Normal

Thought l should provide an update on the boy.  Our last post left off with the Randle Clan heading home for 8 glorious days of cancer-treatment-free bliss.  Well friends, that was not to be.  Almost immediately, Jack’s nose started bleeding.  Initially, it was a drip…then a trickle…then a petite gusher.  By Thursday, we knew medical intervention was needed.  Jack’s oncologist recommend a trip to the ER here in Carbondale for bloodwork & a possible transfusion of platelets.  Shoutout to the staff at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale for the excellent care we received.  They quickly recognized that Jacks platelets were low & worked with Siteman to get him fixed. However, the ER doesn’t have immediate access to platelets, so we waited 4 hours for platelets that were transfused in 30 minutes.  Not a fun way to spend your day!   Despite the platelets & a few snuffs of Afrin (a magic quick fix for nosebleeds), Jack’s nose began bleeding again that evening & continued thru Saturday when we finally went to the BJC Cancer Clinic for more platelets.  From there, we went to the BJC ER for a blood transfusion & an ENT consult and ended our day admitted AGAIN to the oncology unit; where he hung out until Monday being pumped full of blood & platelets.  He’s home now, nosebleed-free & enjoying a brief reprieve from medical machinations until Monday.

Which brings me to the picture above.  Last week, we were just small town folk with limited knowledge about the treatment of epistaxis (that’s medical for nosebleed).  We arrived in the big city with a roll of two-ply toilet paper & a Walmart bag as our trash can (cue the banjo music!).  That’s when we declared that we would  never again fill our pockets with rolled up TP to shove in our child’s snoot.  After a brief search via The Google, we found a better way to deal with future nasal secretions…Nampons!  Yep, it’s a tampon for your nose!  This amazing invention is available on Amazon & delivered directly to your home.  We honestly haven’t tried them yet (& pray we won’t have to), but we plan to provide an honest product review in the future.  We hope that our research & efforts can help each of you in some small way (or at least make you giggle cause nose tampons are funny)…

Much love!

Meg, Rich & Jack