July 14, 2014 -- Day 1 of the 2nd phase of treatment is completed. Gage had a 4 hour appointment today that consisted of IV chemo and spinal tap with chemo. Of course before any treaments could begin we had to go to IHOP for breakfast. Once at Dr. Rosens office, they put numbing cream over his port site to numb the skin before his port was accessed. The nurse Kim accessed his port and drew lab. We didnt know the results of his lab work when we left and will post those results later if and when I know. He was then started on just a fluid infusion to hydrate him before he received any chemo. He received his usual anti-nausea medicine of Kytril first. Then he got a chemo medication called cytarabine. This medication he will receive the next 3 days at home. I will explain more about that shortly. Once his fluids were in, they took about an hour, he was started on his next IV chemo infusion of cytoxan. It took about an hour for this medication to infuse as well. He then got another fluid infusion to help hydrate and flush the chemo from his system. One of the major side effects of the cytoxan is bladder irritation so he has to drink lots of water to flush it out of his system. He has been very good about drinking his water this evening. Once his last round of fluids was started Dr. Rosen did a spinal tap which went much much better than the one that was attempted during sedation. Spinal fluid was removed and sent to lab and chemo was then put back in. Tomorrow he will start a 14 day oral chemo medication that he will take before bed called Mercaptopurine. I stated earlier in the post that Gage will be receiving IV chemo at home. They left his port accessed, and I will be giving him a dose of Kytril and Cytarabine the next 3 days. He got an extra dose of Kytril this evening and he even helped. Thursday after his last dose I will de-access his port. Next week we learned that he will have a similiar round of treatment minus the hour long infusion of cytoxan. Gage then rode home with his mom. They went to Panera to get something to eat and then he slept all the way home. He did have a couple bouts of nausea, but nothing beyond that. We can definately tell that he got treatment today as he is not nearly as energetic as he has been the past few days/nights. We are waiting for Grandma Marla to get here to spend the next couple of days with Gage. Gage is really hoping he feels up to going over to a friends house tomorrow, but we will just have to wait and see. Dr. Rosen did say that this phase is a much more agressive phase and the medicine is really hitting the cancer hard. We will continue to take each treatment as they come and deal with any side effects. We are anticipating that his counts will really drop again with this new round of medication. We all have got to get back on our routine of good hand washing and monitoring who is around him as his counts drop again. Thanks again for all the prayers for today and this next phase of treatment. Polly & Lionel
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 02:31:11 +0000
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