John and I took Everett to Childrens yesterday (May 24) for his 3rd of countless bone marrow aspirations. Everett wasn't allowed to eat after midnight Monday and couldn't have anything to drink after 10 am yesterday morning, which might not have been so bad except his appointment wasn't until 1:30. I'm sure Everett must have been starving and thirsty, but he's such a trooper...he only asked me for something to eat once, and after I explained that he had to go to the hospital for a test and that he couldn't eat or drink until Mindy (his favorite nurse) said it was okay, he never asked again. I was expecting tears and pleading from him for snacks and milk, but as usual, he just did what we asked him to do, without even a little bit of fighting on his part.
The bone marrow aspiration went well and took less than 15 minutes from start to finish. John and I were allowed to stay in the room with Everett while the doctors and nurses did the procedure. I told myself before they started that I would NOT get upset, that if Everett could go through the procedure without tears, so could I. I probably would have been okay, but when the doctor started to insert the needle to collect the bone marrow, Everett lifted his whole body up toward the doctor, and the very thought that maybe he was aware of what was going on and could feel pain, sent me over the edge. The doctor said they would give him a little break and they gave him more sedative to be sure he was under, and the rest of the procedure was smooth sailing.
It took quite awhile for Everett to wake up from the sedation and when he did wake up he was feeling pretty nauseous. The nurse gave him some zofran to help settle his belly, but that didn't seem to do the trick. They gave him ativan as a second try, and that seemed to work, so they let us leave the hospital around 5:30. We were going to grab dinner (since John and I hadn't eaten all day either) and then head home, but never even made it into the restaurant before Everett got sick again. We decided to grab drive through and get Everett home ASAP. We were almost home when Everett started saying he didn't feel good. We got him home and he seemed okay, until he threw up all over himself and the kitchen floor. Thankfully, that was his last episode and he slept soundly all night.
We hope to have the results of the bone marrow aspiration this Friday, and we are saying our prayers that Everett is still in remission. The doctors are hopeful and said that they expect nothing but good news. When your child has leukemia, the hope for continued negative bone marrow tests is one of the things that keeps you going. It's the reason you allow doctors to pump poisons into your child. It's the thing you hold on to when you don't feel strong enough.
Val
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
2 week break!
Since our last post Everett has completed his second round of Consolidation 1 (2-3 hour arsenic infusion 5 days/week for 5 weeks). He did AMAZING as usual, and aside from the week we spent battling a GI bug, the past 5 weeks of treatment have been uneventful.
We are so excited to be together as a family for longer than just the weekend and found out last week that this break from treatment will be 2 weeks, which is a week longer than we expected. When I say it, 2 weeks doesn't sound like that long, but after 2, 5-week rounds of treatment, where we only spent friday through sunday nights together, 2 weeks as a family sounds like an eternity. Finding out your child has cancer changes everything in your life, and for me, one of the hardest changes to deal with has been having to spend so much time away from my husband and my boys. Thank God for our breaks, where we just get to be a regular family.
We will be taking Everett to Childrens next Tuesday (May 24) for a bone marrow biopsy to see whether our little fighter is still in remission. We ask for prayers that the leukemia is still gone and that he sails through the biopsy with no complications.
Everett will then be admitted for Consolidation 2 on Tuesday, May 31, and will remain hospitalized throughout his treatment and until his blood counts begin to recover and he has enough of an immune system to safely come home. This next round of treatment means ATRA twice a day for 14 days, a lumbar puncture to check for leukemia in the central nervous system, a dose of chemo given directly into his spinal column, 2, 3-hour IV infusions of a very high dose of chemo on days 1-4, and a short infusion of another type of chemo on day 4. Consolidation 2 has the potential to be pretty rough, so please say a prayer that God will carry Everett through his treatments, protecting him from the worst of the side effects.
We would like to thank our amazing friends and family for their continued support. Without all of you, I know we couldn't get through this. In particular, John and I want to say a special thank you to our Rondald McDonald House sponsor (you know who you are). This person has been amazing, paying for our entire Ronald McDonald House stay since Everett's initial diagnosis. There are no words to fully express what a gift this has been for our family. Having a sick child means a lot of time spent away from work (unpaid) and countless additional expenses every month from medical bills (even with great insurance and medical assistance) to the cost of weekly trips to Pittsburgh for treatment. But thanks to the generosity of one person, one of our major expenses (housing while Everett is at Childrens) has been taken care of, so that we don't have to stress or worry about how to pay for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Val
We are so excited to be together as a family for longer than just the weekend and found out last week that this break from treatment will be 2 weeks, which is a week longer than we expected. When I say it, 2 weeks doesn't sound like that long, but after 2, 5-week rounds of treatment, where we only spent friday through sunday nights together, 2 weeks as a family sounds like an eternity. Finding out your child has cancer changes everything in your life, and for me, one of the hardest changes to deal with has been having to spend so much time away from my husband and my boys. Thank God for our breaks, where we just get to be a regular family.
We will be taking Everett to Childrens next Tuesday (May 24) for a bone marrow biopsy to see whether our little fighter is still in remission. We ask for prayers that the leukemia is still gone and that he sails through the biopsy with no complications.
Everett will then be admitted for Consolidation 2 on Tuesday, May 31, and will remain hospitalized throughout his treatment and until his blood counts begin to recover and he has enough of an immune system to safely come home. This next round of treatment means ATRA twice a day for 14 days, a lumbar puncture to check for leukemia in the central nervous system, a dose of chemo given directly into his spinal column, 2, 3-hour IV infusions of a very high dose of chemo on days 1-4, and a short infusion of another type of chemo on day 4. Consolidation 2 has the potential to be pretty rough, so please say a prayer that God will carry Everett through his treatments, protecting him from the worst of the side effects.
We would like to thank our amazing friends and family for their continued support. Without all of you, I know we couldn't get through this. In particular, John and I want to say a special thank you to our Rondald McDonald House sponsor (you know who you are). This person has been amazing, paying for our entire Ronald McDonald House stay since Everett's initial diagnosis. There are no words to fully express what a gift this has been for our family. Having a sick child means a lot of time spent away from work (unpaid) and countless additional expenses every month from medical bills (even with great insurance and medical assistance) to the cost of weekly trips to Pittsburgh for treatment. But thanks to the generosity of one person, one of our major expenses (housing while Everett is at Childrens) has been taken care of, so that we don't have to stress or worry about how to pay for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Val
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