Steroids - Part Two

Oh steroids, how I have NOT missed you!

Holy cow! If the first round of steroids was difficult, they barely scratched the surface when it comes to tears. So far, Matthew and I have been up and about for about 3 & 1/2 hours, and he has only stopped crying for tiny, short intervals (like 30 seconds to a minute). He's crying because he misses his friends at school, he wants mac & cheese with hotdogs (both of which we are all out of!), he wants me to watch his show with him, he doesn't want the TV in the other room to be on the same show as his, and because I gave him popcorn (which he asked for and helped me make) but he wanted to save it for Mikey. I told him that I sent Mikey to school with a good lunch, and he won't be hungry, and then Matthew cried again because he misses his school. All the while, he is eating. Nothing satisfies his cravings completely, so he eats half, and then asks for something else. He is running me ragged!

Thank heavens this is only for a week. We are only on day 2, though. It's going to be a LONG week!

Clinic yesterday went pretty smoothly. And thank you to my sister, Melissa, for coming with me so I wouldn't have to do it alone! He was pretty moody during the visit, but it was just a preview for today's show. One of his big cravings the last few weeks has been bacon. One day last week, he ate 2 pieces on the way to the clinic, 4 pieces at clinic, and 5 or 6 more at home that day. Normally, I would think that would be alarming, but when he's already losing weight, and he's eating very little and not holding it all down, I give him the food he wants.

Yesterday was the last dose of the horrible, awful Doxorubicin. Thank heavens!

His ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) was 100 yesterday. That's essentially no ability to fight off infection. Right now, he's not even equipped to fight off the germs that normally live in all our bodies. The next couple of weeks will be touch and go. If he's exposed to anything, it will likely land him in the hospital. I know I keep saying that, but this is truly on the verge.

One nice thing is that he doesn't have to get any Chemo for 2 weeks. December 13th is his next appointment. He has to have time to recover from what's going on with him right now before we move on. This phase seems to do this to all the kids, so the break is built into the protocol. The nurse said if he hasn't recovered his counts in 2 weeks, we'll delay even one more week before starting the second half of this phase.

I just love the staff at the clinic! They have worked hard to figure out what Matthew's needs are and help him through the tough days. The nurse who was doing the vitals yesterday poked her head in and said she reads the blog. Not just Matthew's but she said she likes how we all have our blogs linked to each other's. She likes to stay on top of what's happening with all the cancer kids in case she doesn't see them at clinic for a while, then she's caught up when they come. Isn't that touching? She is a fine example of a medical professional who truly cares about her patients! (If you're reading this, thank you Paige! It means a lot!)

Hopefully we'll start to put up our Christmas decorations this weekend, but we'll see how it goes.

Wish us luck with the emotional week ahead!