Back in the room!

Sawyer went "downstairs" at 11:30 am, we sat with him for about an hour and a half before everything was in place for  him to be taken away (and he hadn't eaten or drank anything since 8 pm last night). He just got back to the room at 6 pm. Luckily for him he thought he was only gone for about half an hour!
While in the netherworld of anesthesia, they did a couple xrays, a spinal tap to collect samples to see if leukemia is in the spine and nervous system (it's not, yay!), a heart ultrasoung, and EKG, and to have a port installed in his chest for future administering of drugs and taking blood (he's very happy that it will pretty much eliminate being stabbed by needles). The port is actually under his skin and won't be obvious after he leaves the hospital unless he's receiving a treatment.
We just met with the doctor to go over his chemotherapy "road map" for the next month. She gave us a chart that shows what drugs he will receive and on what days. He'll get those through the IV port in his chest, plus get a dose of steroids every day in pill form.Those pills apparently have a possible side affect of making him moody, which will be very strange for us since he's generally not!
His next 28 days should be pretty anti-climatic. He shouldn't have many side effects, should generally feel decent. After the 28 days he'll go home (yay - let the count down begin!). Then he'll come back up once a week for chemo treatments.
The goal and typical case is that he should go into remission at the end of the 28 days, then for the next 3 years receive maintenance chemotherapy to keep him in remission.
His hair loss will probably happen gradually starting in a couple weeks. It will grow back in about 8 months after he's received the bulk of his treatments. He will keep his eyebrows and lashes. The nurse is already trying to convince him to do something crazy with his hair while he still has it (mohawk, dye it pink, crazy cut) but given his normal conservatism I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if he does anything!
Tomorrow will be DAY ONE of his treatment, which luckily happens right in the room. The nurses on this floor are all chemo-certified so they administer the drugs.
He will be able to get outside for fresh air as well - what a relief, I can't imagine not being able to do that every day.
And we signed consent forms for samples of his blood and bone marrow to be given out to research facilities for use as they work on various treatments and ways to better understand the disease.