Well, that was kind of a whirlwind!
Thursday, we went for Matthew's testing for the end of induction. They drew some spinal fluid to make sure the Leukemia hadn't spread to his central nervous system, and they drew bone marrow to check and see if he's in remission.
The spinal fluid came back clean, which is what the doctors expected, but they will check periodically throughout his treatment. The bone marrow looks good under a microscope, but they had to send it away for more detailed tests. Results can take up to a week before they pronounce him in remission. If he is, we'll move onto our next round of chemo on the 23rd of August.
To explain, a round of chemo is like a set of treatments. He just finished his first round, which was induction. It involved 4 treatments of Methotrexate administered into his spinal fluid, 4 (or 5?) treatments of Vincristine administered into his IV, and 1 treatment of Peg Aspariginase administered into his IV. Plus twice daily doses of Dexamethazone.
So, if he's in remission, we'll move onto the next round, which is called consolidation. We may have to wait until the symptoms of his virus are completely gone, though. So, it could be delayed by a week to let him continue recovering.
So anyway, that was Thursday. 7 hours at the clinic for the spinal tap, the bone marrow aspirate, and also, Matthew got a blood transfusion. Those take a really long time!
By Thursday afternoon, when he was getting blood, he had started coughing. By the time we got home, it was sounding like a pretty productive cough. Thursday night, he stayed up all night coughing. Friday morning, he had a fever of 100.1. Now that doesn't seem like a big deal, and even in the cancer world, it isn't huge. They say if the kids have a temp of 100 for an hour, we should call the clinic. So, an hour later I checked, and it was 100.2. By this point, his nose seemed a little sniffly, too. I called the clinic, and described the symptoms, and they asked me to come in to get him a chest X-Ray and an exam from a doctor.
We got the X-Ray and went up to the clinic. The doctor came in to examine him, and she said he was slightly dehydrated, which is ironic, since he's retaining so much fluid he can't walk. But she also said she couldn't hear anything in his lungs, so she didn't think we had to worry about pneumonia. She wanted to give him IV fluids and antibiotics just to be sure, until they could run some tests. She left the office for like 1 minute, and then came back and said, "I take back everything I said." It turned out there was a small shadow on one of his lungs. She wanted to admit him for pneumonia.
As scary as that all sounds, it wasn't nearly as stressful as you might think. We caught it when it was just some coughing and a little sniffle. It was disappointing to be back in the hospital , though. On Thursday, they told us his ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count, which determines his ability to fight infection) was 1500, although it's at the low end of normal, it is within the range of normal, which hadn't happened for Matthew since his diagnosis. That ANC count, combined with an 11 day break from chemo, had us really excited, and we had big plans! At 1500, Matthew can go out into public! We were going to take him to a family reunion, and then on a drive through the mountains for a picnic in the forest (Matthew's idea).
So, it was disappointing when those sniffles started, because we knew our plans were shot.
The upside was that we caught it really fast, and the doctors didn't feel his condition was dangerous. They reacted with extreme caution, which is why we spent the weekend in the hospital, but I know they have my son's best interests at heart. They gave him IV fluids and got him rehydrated and did their tests. They found a common virus called Metapneumovirus (see below). It explained all of his symptoms, and since it was viral, there was nothing they could do to get rid of it, so as soon as he was fever free for 24 hours, they let us go home.
This time, the stay in the hospital wasn't nearly as stressful. Last time, we were in the middle of a crisis. This time, we were being cautious. It was much less intense.
When they released him early Sunday afternoon, we decided we still wanted to go to the mountains. So, we piled in the truck with some camping chairs and firewood, and we drove up to Kamas. We bought a bucket of deli chicken, some pasta salad, some chips, and a bag of marshmallows, and found a campsite. We started up a fire, had some dinner, roasted some marshmallows (or as Matthew says, "Oshmellows"), and then it started raining a little, so we left. He was pooped by then anyway, but it was a good time. I'll post pictures later.
Just wanted to update everyone. Thanks for your prayers and support this weekend!!
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