What a Day

We arrived at the hospital at 7:25am for the audiogram. By about 8:15 or so, he finally had the chlorohydrate in him. Even though it was obvious that he was ready to crash, he just wouldn't go to sleep. He cried and thrashed around. He was extremely agitated. He finally fell asleep around 8:45. By 9:30 he woke up and was again extremely agitated. This pretty much put an end to the audiogram.

We then proceeded to get an echocardiogram to get a baseline of his heart's strength. He was too agitated for the echo.

Around 10:30 or so we went to the cafeteria to get him something to eat. He devoured a bananna. That seemed to have helped. Back to get his echo, this time it worked.

Finally at around 2:00 we made it to 4301. He's passed out now and will probably be out for hours. They may try to do another hearing test while he's out.

Cisplatin today, but they're cutting back the dose. In order to be able to do this, they've added a different chemo drug. Yeah, the one that has a small chance of leukemia. It also has a chance of weakening the heart, hence the echo.

We should be home by Wednesday. Andy's counts will probably be up for Thanksgiving, but they will soon drop which means we probably won't be around doing the family thing over Thanksgiving.

Don't forget the rules. If you're sick, stay away. If you've been sick, stay away. If you've been around anyone who's sick, stay away. If your kids have been around anyone who's sick, stay away. IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD A FLU SHOT, STAY AWAY!

This new chemo drug lowers his counts even more than Cisplatin so we're going to be extra vigilant. Yes, family, this means we probably won't see any of you for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Two more chemo cycles (including the one that starts today), then he's done with chemo. He'll be on magnesium gluconate for a few weeks afterward and Bactrim for another 6 months or so. But that's it! He'll get his AFP counts taken once a month and CT scans every 3 months. After a year or so, this will back off and he'll just be coming into the clinic once a year.