Another week passes

Friday, July 13, 2012

On Sunday Dillon will have been in the hospital for a month....count them....4 whole weeks.  WOW!!!  Time has actually flown by.  No really, days are busy and full at the hospital and then with the weekends now home with Luca, the week just disappears.

The lumbar puncture went without a hitch.  The procedure was performed in the room under sedation.  He woke up hungry pretty much immediately and was on with the day.  No long, drawn out feelings of queasiness or dopiness.  It was great.

The rest of the week was uneventful.  We are in this "holding pattern" of 10 days off of chemo and steroids.  His mood and outlook on life, his humor, his energy, his strength are all on an upswing.  I dread in a few days when they have to knock him back down. This all means that the chemo is working and the cancer is dying....so it is good news, however hard it is to see and deal with on a day-to-day basis. This morning Sean said his white counts are 60.....YIKES.  A week ago they were 7000.  The staff assure us that many kids get all the way down to 0.  He is on a 10-day course of medication to help his counts recover during his time off of chemo so that he is healthy enough and strong enough to take the next round.  If his counts don't recover, we have to hold off on the next round. It is quite a balancing act...we want the counts to fall and then we want them back up.  Sean and I do not fully understand how all this works and why low is good and then low is bad and why we need special meds to bring counts back up when we were all praying for counts to drop.  It is a dance, a delicate balance, a teetering on the edge.

Seriously though, life now feels a little more normal even though we are split between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The switching off of kids between Sean and I has done wonders for everyone.

I am home with Luca, who is going fishing and camping with a buddy tomorrow.  Do you know what that means.......I have an entire 30 hours completely to myself at home.  YAHHOOOO!!!!

Questions you might have:
Do you have the results back for our bone marrow matching??.....NO....still waiting.
When will we go to Denver????.......If the chemo works as they hope it does, we will be leaving in about 2 to 2-1/2 months.
Is Luca going back to Waldorf?????....YES, absolutely.  He needs that consistency, the social support, and the fun/distraction.

Until next week......

Be on the lookout for the next update....we will be sharing an ENORMOUS surprise that Dillon had this week...I'm just waiting on a few more photos.  If you thought the Lobo visit was big....you won't BELIEVE this one!!!!!