Update 1*8*08

Well, we had a nice Christmas at home with Lukas. His counts were on their way back up and he was feeling pretty nice. We got to go to my aunts house in Krum for my side of the families Christmas party on Sunday the 23rd. We took Christmas Eve off and stayed home. Lukas was really tired from the day before and was starting to get congested and a little warm. We did our small family party with Kurt's brother and sisters Christmas Eve. Lukas went to bed early with a little bit of a fever. He was exhausted and worn out. Theron, Coen and Emma made sure all of his toys got attention though! Christmas day we got up and met my mom, brothers and grandma for brunch at IHOP. Lukas had a huge appetite! I guess all that sleeping made him really hungry! Theron and Lukas had a nice visit but were starting to feel more crummy. Theron's asthma was really flaring up and Lukas was even more congested and coughing. When we got back home they were both running a small fever. The doctor on call (Dr. Beam) wasn't too worried about Lukas because his fever never got over 99, so we could give him some Robitussin to help the cough. By 8:30 Wednesday night Lukas' fever was staying right at 100 or a little above after taking Tylenol, Robitussin wasn't helping and he was miserable. Theron had a fever that wouldn't go away and his breathing treatments didn't seem to help much. We had a different doctor on call (Dr. Heym) that said we should take Lukas into the ER to run labs-just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. Since both the boys were sick with the same symptoms, Kurt and I decided to take them both in. We got to the ER about 9:30pm (12/26/07). The nurses came in and did vitals. The ER doc decided to do chest XRays. They had to access Lukas to draw labs. They did the regular CBC (checks the counts) and also checked the blood to make sure there wasn't an infection in the port line. The Xrays both came back clear but Lukas was neutropenic so they admitted him and sent Theron home with a strong steriod to help his lungs. About 2:30 am we were taken up to room 3101 and there we stayed until Sunday! They had Lukas on antibiotics and checked his counts ever morning. By Sunday all his counts but the neutrophils were good so they discharge us. Dr. Grainger gave him a shot of GCSF (growth factor shot) to help boost his neutrophils. The shot seemed to help him out and by the time we went back into clinic Thursday (1/3/08) his neutrophils were at 730 (at 50 when we left). He was ready to start chemo again, but would have to wait until Friday the 4th to start. This round was with 2 different drugs and would take about 7-8 hours to administer and there wasn't enough time Thursday to start. Friday we got to clinic at 9am and got started about 10am. He had to have 2 hours of hydration before we started to make sure his body would flush the chemo properly. Once the hydration was finished we started the first drug (Cytoxan) which ran for an hour. The next drug (Etoposide or VP16) ran for 2 hours. We didn't have a room in clinic to do this so we had to be out in the general play room while his chemo ran. He played for a while and slept a little and then played some more and ate a little bit and then finally about 3:30 he was exhausted. I held him for about an hour and then my mom took over. At 5:15pm we were finally done in the clinic. We had to go back to the hospital on Saturday for the 2nd dose of the VP16. We had to wait for a bed to open up on our floor and about 4pm we were able to go in. It took another hour to get started and then 2 hours for the chemo to run. Fortunately we didn't have to do hydration! Sunday was better. They had a bed ready for us first thing so we got in and got done by 4pm. And that brings us up to date. Lukas is doing well so far. It took a couple of days the last 2 rounds for the effects to start, so until then we are enjoying Lukas' good mood.


http://www.cancer.org/docroot/lrn/lrn_0.asp