On Monday we went to Starship for a blood test to see how Ethan is tolerating his oral chemo. Hes been on the 100% dose for his body mass for six weeks. Little bro carried out his now usual blood drip counting exercise (just seven drips this time!). Wed also put a call in to clinic to ask for an urgent referral to the hospital dental clinic as one of Ethans temporary fillings fell out on the weekend and his tooth is horribly decayed. Thankfully we were able to be seen quickly, so after bloods we went down the corridor to the dental clinic and after a short wait were invited into the dentists surgery. Upon inspection the dentist has recommended that Ethans decaying tooth be extracted. Its a premolar so hell have a gap now for several years. I told him that once the tooth is pulled hell look just like a real pirate! This went down well as hes looking forward to his pirate themed birthday party which is coming up. Whew! The dentist also identified another tooth that needs a filling and suspects there may be other teeth that will need work too. She took Xrays and will talk with our oncologist and the theatre team so that hopefully things will fall into place for Ethan to have the tooth removed, other tooth filled and any other work done while hes under a general anaesthetic for his next lumbar puncture at the end of December. The dentist told us that chemotherapy can damage teeth and cause faster development of tooth decay than normal. She also said that it affects the development of the permanent teeth, especially the roots, but that the permanent teeth should last till around 40 years of age. What the?! Another crappy side effect of chemotherapy! My boy could start loosing his teeth in his 40s! So not fair. Anyway, back to bloods. Today we called clinic and learned that Ethans neutrophils have dropped down to .61. If he continues at his 100% dose the neutrophils will definitely continue to drop (theyve been on a downward trend over the last month) and he would end up severely neutropenic and possibly back in hospital. We dont want that so the docs have reduced his dosage to 50%. Wed given him is usual Monday night 100% dose of both mercaptopurine and methotrexate so I hope that wont be a problem! Hoping the neuts stabilise and increase a bit with the lower dose which starts tonight . . . After the phone call I explained to Ethan that because his neutrophils have dropped a little lower than we want his chemo dose has been reduced, that instead of X number of pills each night hell only need to have Y now which is quite a lot less. He didnt say anything. Instead he got to his feet and started dancing a jig!! Haha!! So Im pretty certain that hes happy with the idea of taking less pills over the next two weeks :D
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:45:11 +0000
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