Long day=not so short post, sorry!

Today was just plain long. Jax was able to sleep in till 10:00am which means he went 11 hours without pain meds, I was glad. We drove to the hospital and ate lunch in front of the big fish tank just like when he was a little guy. Then he had labs drawn from his port for the first time, no biggie since he has been accessed since the surgery. Then we went to Audiology for a BAER test. BAER stands for brainstem auditory evoked response test. First they had to do a hearing test because the chemo drugs he had when he was four are, oto-----something or other (long word beginning with oto!), basically meaning they can damage hearing. Say what?! How come I never knew this? The audiologists were surprised he had never had a hearing test there. Once again I am realizing how oblivious I was (am but I'm trying) and that we probably got a little less than stellar care because we were getting Chemo in Yakima, and the Doc. there thought the Doc. in Seattle was on top of it all, and the docs. in Seattle only saw him every 3 months and assumed doc. in Yakima had it under control. His ears were retracted, probably from allergies or congestion the audiologist thought, but they were retracted enough to show hearing loss in the middle and inner ear of a significant level. Thus she had to do a special test to check the cochlea because if it's damaged then the hearing loss is perm. It was fine so they proceeded to do the BAER test. They hooked Jax up to a million wires and tubes and asked him to fall asleep while they pulsed sound through his ears. I was thinking "fat chance" but he did it--basically slept for 3 hours while they jostled and moved him. It was cool to watch the brain waves, she showed me what they would look like when he was truly out, and he was, most of the time. She "stressed" the test to the limits 90 decibels and he slept on, that is like a semi truck driving right past your ear! He has his fathers "sleeping genes". She brought in other audiologists and said they had all been talking a lot about Jax and very curious about the ordering of this test by Dr. McClain in Houston. I think they were very surprised to find that he had a significant "neurological abnormality in the auditory pathway in both ears"(their diagnosis). Our oncologist was quite happy about that though because now she has a Number, level, and graph to chart from. The "team" in Seattle has been very nervous about the chemo roadmap sent over from Houston because they have never seen it before, so if nothing else the docs. here are happier and really trusting Dr. McClain completely. Jax also had his first Chemo. today. Took about 30 min. to administer and he did fine, despite listening to all the scary facts and worries the Chemo nurse was impressing upon me-- in front of him. The soreness from surgery is still what he complains of most. Thanks for all the prayers and calls, and messages. Love you all too.