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We were pleasantly surprised this morning that Steven had cleared his methotrexate--it was .08. However, his CBC revealed low counts--his ANC was 300 (it needs to be 500 to go to school) and his hematocrit was 24. We decided to give him a blood transfusion before we got checked out so that he could feel a little better this weekend. He had been complaining of dizziness and headaches. I am so grateful to all those who donate blood. If you can donate--do it! Our nurse told us that the ICS unit at Primary children's is the biggest consumer of blood products in all of Utah, Nevada and Idaho. The cancer kids need blood and plasma regularly. She was trying to assuage my fears about blood reactions and infections, but I took from it a renewed desire to give blood. As he had his transfusion, we put together some candy grams for Tim and Eric--our amputee cancer buddies who will both finish their treatments this Saturday. We can just taste the finish and you could just feel Steven...

So, things are going fairly well this round. Steven threw up only once that first day and was feeling better by yesterday afternoon. He is clearing a bit slower than he would six months ago, but not as slow as the last round. It is hard to say if he will tomorrow or Friday. He has been extra tired and waking him up at night has been really hard. Yesterday, Andrew and Rob came up in the evening for a visit. The kids all love to visit the hospital. I think it has something to do with the lenient video gaming that goes on. That reminds me of a conversation I had with Andrew where I asked him if he thought Steven was really lucky to get all the extra privileges that come with cancer. He said, "No. I'd rather not have cancer and not get all that stuff." Now I'm going off on a tangent, but it made me think of when my sister was first diagnosed with cancer. I had spent way too much of my life feeling jealous of her, but suddenly all of my jealousy dissolved away and I haven...

Steven's nurse just started the chemo for round 17. This is methotrexate so the infusion lasts four hours and hopefully Steven will go home Thursday, if not, Friday. His counts weren't great, but they we good enough. He has watched a movie, read a book and just started some Mario Galaxy. The cat got out of the bag that i actually do know how to plug the wii in (he used to wait until Rob could bring it up.). Something about the hospital makes me feel instantly tired. This is probably those negative associations the nurses talk about. I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open. But life is good--even the docs are talking about how close we are to the end. Exciting!

We've had a great weekend, but it didn't turn out how we had planned. The boys were out of school on Friday. Steven got to go bowling with some friends from school. He had a great time and asked to do it again on Saturday. He would crutch out to the end of the lane while one of his friends carried the ball for him. He would trade a crutch for the ball and then try to throw it down the lane. It was fun to watch--so good to see him involved with his friends. One of his friends had chosen it for his birthday party just so that Steven would be able to participate. I won't deny that I had my doubts that he could do it, but I learned a lesson about letting Steven decide what he can do. On Friday evening, my brother called with great news that his wife had gone into labor. My parents were out of town and I was the closest family around, so he asked if I could help him with his boys. We ended up watching them overnight at my parents house (if you've seen our littl...

I'm not sure where to start today, but since it's been a few days I'll make an attempt. Steven has been back at school this week. He finally got caught up with his homework and he is like a whole new kid with that weight lifted off his shoulders. The last few weeks have been very stressful for him and for me. Between chemo, homework, and physical therapy, he has had a lot of stress. Last week I made a tough call and canceled his piano lessons for a while. It wasn't tough as in, "Can he handle this?" because clearly he has enough on his plate. It was tough as in, "My kid has given up enough of normal--does he have to lose one more thing?" (Okay, granted, this is only sad to me, not him, but still.) He has been wearing his leg a lot more. He is making some progress, but not a lot and not very fast. He figured out that he can jump on the trampoline with his leg on and without crutches, so he keeps begging Andrew to go and jump with him. When ...

I am thrilled to report tonight that Steven is officially done with Doxorubicin and we have only one kind of chemo left (though two rounds of it). This stuff is nasty. It has immediate side effects as well as possible long term after effects (like heart damage and, rarely, leukemia). It is derived from a soil fungus. If you want to know more, you can read about it here . Luckily, given without the Cisplatin, Steven tolerated it very well. He was really quite happy at the hospital this time around--joking around and enjoying as much free time as I would let him. I have been the slave driving mother, trying to get him to do homework, but he is having a hard time concentrating. I guess I don't blame him. Seriously, when I am there, I get nothing productive done. (With the occasional exception of getting Steven to do a little homework or physical therapy.) He had some fun visitors this time around and collected some fun books and games. One of Steven's favorite things about the hos...

I swear I was just blogging about round 15, but here we are again, checked into the hospital. Steven is getting hydrated and once he is, he will start doxyrubicin--his final dose of that drug. I honestly didn't think he would make it here by today. But hIs counts looked great yesterday and he passed his echocardiogram. I still don't know the full results of that--I know his heart function has decreased but not enough that they are concerned. Anyway, here we are--on the road to finishing this up! I have spent so much time wondering if and when this round would happen, that I really just can't believe we are here. Steven is working on a little homework, though he isn't happy about it. He didn't do much homework during his last round and had to finish it up when he got home, and was pretty sad about that, so we are trying a different approach this time. He should feel pretty good for the duration of this infusion, which is for 48 hours once it starts. He...

Round 15 is officially over and Steven is home at last after his longest hospital stay yet--Tuesday to Saturday. I can't complain because some of the other cancer treatments involve month long stays, but still...that is a lot of hospital time. And the daunting part of it is that we are scheduled to go back again on Tuesday for round 16. My little kids had lovely days with friends and family this week, but still they were super needy when I got them home last night. Sigh. I said he had a fun day yesterday, and here are some pictures to prove it. He got to go to a hospital carnival where he met Swoop and Cosmo and got their autographs. One man taught him a little about flipping baseball cards and Steven, the collector, decided he would start collecting baseball cards. (He has never watched a professional baseball game in his life...) After the carnival, Steven also got to have Cosmo and Swoop come and visit him in his room. He got a squirt gun at the carnival and had been s...

I will update better later, but for those wondering, Steven's methotrexate levels were pretty high this morning, for him anyway. The NP assured me that he was clearing more like the average patient, and that it is nothing to be worried about. She said that their bodies get so tired of cleaning the poison out of them that they slow down a little at the end. He has been so quick to clear in the past that it was a hard pill to swallow to hear that we had to stay another day. Anyway, here we are. So far it's been a fun day--I'll post more later.

Steven is just over an hour away from finishing his bag of chemo from round 15. Then it is a typical methotrexate stay--we will be here until at least Friday morning and possibly until Saturday. So far he is doing okay. He is watching movies in an effort to stave off the nausea. I took his leg down to Shriners after we got here. The prosthetist decided not to make the modification that we had talked about and sent me home with it. It is complicated, but I am happy with the arrangement. Carrying the leg around, I think I got more stares than Steven did walking with it. He got to go to school for a few hours this morning and he wore his leg. He was really happy to be there and it made me sad to take him from school and up to the hospital. He was in the middle of PE and having a grand time. So here we go again! When this is done, he will have just three to go. The end is feeling tangible.

We have been waiting for this day for so long--Steven got his leg. I wish I could say that it all went super smoothly and we all did a dance of joy, but unfortunately, the day has come with some sad realizations as well. I'll back up. We started off the day by stopping into the hospital to get Steven's labs done. Usually, this is done by a home health nurse, but she doesn't come until the afternoon, and I wanted results earlier, so we stopped in on our way to Shriners. It went well, but we cut the appointment close and were a little late and rushed. I suppose it didn't matter much, Shriners was busier than I'd ever seen. By the time we finally got into our room, we were well on our way to missing the PT appointment altogether. I called up to PT and told them the situation, and the therapist was nice enough to come down to our room and work with Steven while the prosthetist made adjustments on the leg. They were working together to make it just right for Steven. This...