Happy Anniversary indeed!

Today marks the 6 month anniversary since the boys' surgery for their ports.  It's been a wonderful six months!  We can count the number of bleeds they've had on one hand.  The ease and control of having instant venous access is such a relief.  They are still getting infusions 3x/week each.  We have a pretty good scheduled routine down, doing "shot nights" on Monday, Wednesday and either Friday night or Saturday morning.  It's safe to say they are both used to the new infusions and we have recently even been able to do R with just one of us (it used to take two of us, one to hold him down, the other to do the shot).  B is a pro at it and feels comfortable with either mom or dad giving him his shot.  He's also really starting to take an interest in learning the supplies and likes to help gather everything and prepare...so cute.

Anyways, one of the questions we get asked a lot is "what happens when a hemophiliac gets a paper cut?!?"  "Will they bleed to death if they don't get an infusion?"  Uh, no.  Even severe hemophiliacs with less than 1% Factor VIII (our boys) have enough platelets to help clot minor cuts and bruises, it just takes much longer.

Today, R got hold of a small light bulb and it shattered.  Of course, he was barefoot and got a pretty good cut on his big toe.  I could not get the dang thing to stop bleeding.  There was blood everywhere!  I bandaged his toe up with band aids, gauze, tape and 3 socks and within 2 hours it had bled through.  So I then gave him an infusion and re-dressed the wound, only to have it bleed though again 3 hours later!  Finally, the cut started to clot about 8 hours later.  So, while internal bleeding is much more serious, external bleeding is down right messy!  I guess you can say we had one 'Sunday bloody Sunday'.

Here are some pictures, hope they don't make anyone woozy. I'm so thankful I can handle bloody situations.  As you can see, he's such a trooper with his infusions now!  The only trick is getting him to sit still and not touch.  He loves to play with the empty syringes after we're done and they just happen to make great bath toys! :)