From Mom:

Ethan's been in the hospital since Wednesday night. He developed an infection caused from bacteria in the line of his port. This is common, but life threatening. Fortunately, we caught it right away and took him to the ER at the first sign of malaise. He had a high temperature initially, but has not had a fever or showed any further symptoms since checking in Wednesday night. The doctors are taking his infection very seriously and won't let us check out even though he appears to be doing super great. It's unbelievably frustrating. Protocol, procedures, you name it - they just won't let the little bugger out! As of today, they're talking about releasing him tomorrow and we'll continue to administer his antibiotics at home.

As usual, we are frustrated with the hospital. I think I've mentioned before, I feel like each doctor there is great individually, but the system at the hospital is lacking. Seems like every hour a new doctor is assigned to Ethan, which of course makes us weary of any decisions they make for him no matter how skilled they are. He has a Neuro Oncologist assigned to him in the clinic who has followed him through the whole process, and while we are happy with her skill level and care, it's very frustrating that she is not the assigned doctor in the hospital setting. She is informed and has influence, but not always calling the shots in-house. We may not always agree or like what she has to say, but communication with her only would truly be ideal. So many mixed messages and different viewpoints come across when we discuss our son's care with five different doctors in less than a week. I realize it's probably this way in every hospital, but it just seems crazy. Trust issues arise. If we were billionaires I'm sure we'd have our pick of doctors and could have just one doc assigned too... but we're not.

On top of it all, we're now having a few issues with our Neuro Onc. I think this is because we are parents that question every call and it's hard for the doctors not to take a personal offense and assume we are questioning their abilities. However, the last thing I want to worry about right now is whether or not my son's cancer doctor likes me. Oh well, I suppose we'll jump this hurdle eventually too.

So, we're shooting for release tomorrow. Ethan did not go to rad on Thurs, doctors wouldn't let him because of infection, so we made it up today. Thus, he has graduated from radiation!!! Yay!!!! Utah trip is off, but we should find some alternative, fun plan for Ethan to enjoy by next week, hopefully.

Wish us luck!