Thursday, March 12, 2009

Radiation 6--and next on the menu...

This morning when the transport guy arrived to take us from short stay to radiation, he said "we're just going across the hall for x-rays." Um. What? "You're going to radiology, right?" That would have been bad if I weren't paying attention. I explained that radiation is not just across the hall and that we weren't going for x-rays--did he know how to get to radiation?

Other than that, everything was fine.

Following radiation, we stopped off at the treatment center for a blood draw, to check The Boy's counts. Everything was good. Whites are likely on their way down--they're kind of okay right now, so I think that we can go to the diner on Saturday for breakfast.

We could go in for his next chemo as early as next week but possibly in two weeks, depending on how his counts rebound. We'll have to come in on Monday to check again. We don't know how he will respond to radiation, not the same way that chemo response is predictable. This chemo will be five days (hopefully only five days) with Cytoxan and Etoposide. The next one will be three days, with Carboplatin and Etoposide. Thus will end consolidation.

It's been hard, getting up for radiation and disrupting everyone's sleep patterns, such as they are. That said, the extra weeks without chemo, even this week on radiation, have been great for The Boy! His walking has improved greatly, and he is saying so many new words! He can point to body parts (although sometimes when asked to point to his nose, he points to my nose instead!) and he says some more names of food. He has several words that he has said once or twice but hasn't repeated.

He also just learned how to open a doorknob. We're in trouble.

1 comment:

JC said...

My daughter is being marked in the morning for possible radiation treatment starting next week. We thought she had Wilms, but it turns out it is possibly rhabdoid. I'm scared to death of all this since it has only been a week since they discovered the cancer. Thanks for posting about your experience though because it gives me somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Thank you for sharing your story! It is helping me. :) Jennifer