Christmas and new Chemo

The nice part about Alex flunking his counts last week is that he was free of just about all his medications for Christmas. We didn't have to fight him to swallow this, or take that - it was a nice reprieve.

Christmas was wonderful - Alex got us up about 6:45am all excited that Santa had indeed arrived! We opened presents for *hours* (I'm not kidding - *hours*), and enjoyed the company of Alex's Grandparents, Jim, Diana and Bob. Alex was so excited to give his gift to Tessa-Lynn, which just made my heart swell.

We broke out the "nice rug" on Christmas - a trick from one of my friends, Joelle. If Alex isn't acting "nice", he has to go sit on the rug until he can be "nice". I think it is working...he sure doesn't like having to sit on it!

We had Alex's big Chemo appointment on Friday - we were at the hospital for 10 1/2 hours - yes ten and a half hours...ugh! He had an LP (lumbar puncture) to inject more Methotrexate into his spinal fluid at 10:30. We left the house at 8:30 to pick up the numbing cream at the pharmacy, so we could apply it to his PORT before we got to the hospital. Wouldn't you know it, a 15 gram tube costs $35 and is not covered under our insurance - we'll see what happens come 1/1/2009.

We got to the hospital, and they checked his counts. He squeaked by with an ANC of 800 (he needed 750 in order to start the new Chemo)! The nurses hooked him up to an IV to start fluid through his PORT since one of the Chemo drugs (Cytoxan), is really hard on the bladder. We went to the playroom, and hung out until they were ready for us in the procedure room. Alex was a champ, and went "under" for the anesthesiologist without incident. The LP took only 15 minutes, and then silly, goofy, still-sort-of-drugged Alex wobbled to our room. The nurse hooked him back up to the IV, and we waited for him to pee. Yup, the kid who can pee any time, anywhere wouldn't go. He napped, I napped, Eric napped, and we waited, and waited. Hours went by, and he still wouldn't pee. There was a TV in the room, so we endured the kids show Barney (ughhhhhh), and other cartoons while we waited.

Finally, I got him to pee. Unfortunately, it was just about a 1/4 cup of fluid, and waaaayyyy to concentrated. So, we waited some more. Another bag of fluid was put on his IV pole, and finally, he went some more. Again, not much, and too concentrated. So, nurse Mindy gave him a diuretic to make him go. SUCCESS!

First, we had to give him Zofran (anti-nausea), and wait 1/2 hour. Then, the Cytoxan took over 1/2 hour to dispense through his PORT. During that time, we also were educated on giving him his Cyterabine Chemo at home, and "deactivating" his PORT. Then, we had 3 more hours of hydration before he could go home.

Alex was a real champ, and started smiling for the nurses. Thank goodness, we don't have to do the Cytoxan again for another 28 days!

This morning, we went out to breakfast at our normal restaurant, and Alex threw up as we were getting ready to pay the bill, poor guy! All the waitresses there are so nice, and really are concerned about Alex. They gave us a bucket we could take with us, in case he got sick again. We are now thinking we need to give him the Zofran more often...we are learning as fast as we can! There haven't been anymore throw-up sessions today, hopefully we will be able to time the Zofran to eliminate his nausea...