What a Week!

WOW! This was a whirlwind of a week! All good. I thought I better update before I start to lose details.

After last week's fabulous counts, I took Matthew out to the daycare to visit. By the way, if any of you who are reading this, ever need a daycare in West Valley (and I think they have a West Jordan location), I could never recommend anything higher than I recommend Small World. Matthew stopped attending their center in July, but anytime we want to stop in and visit, they let us go to the rooms where the kids are, so that Matthew can play, they feed him, they have raised money for us, and they often have a bulletin board up as a tribute to him. 4 employees from the daycare came to visit Matthew in the hospital, and one of them comes to our house every week to teach him pre-school lessons. All of this, even after they no longer make any money from us. I LOVE them. They are not just a business, they are family, and they care so much for the kids there. Given the choice between them and any daycare, preschool, or private school in the valley, I'd take Matthew back there in a heartbeat.

Anyway, our visit to the daycare was eventful. I'm so squeamish about crowds of kids, because they share things from one kid's mouth to another, and they don't think about germs. A four year old rarely understands that they really shouldn't cough in another kid's face. And daycares are notorious for being germ factories. So, I was nervous to go, but knew Matthew really needed it, and I have to trust that when they say counts are up, he can fight things off, even if he is exposed to something.

When we got there, Matthew had brought a toy harmonica with him. He has been wanting to show it to his friends for months. He was so excited to show them. And they were excited to see it. They shared it. All of them. Just as it was headed for Matthew's mouth, I asked the teacher to take it away. I'll boil it later.

At first, the kids took a minute to recognize Matthew. He does look a lot different. He's taller and bald. But once they realized it was him, they had a really good time playing. Soon, it was lunch time. I didn't want to feed Matthew lunch there (even though they offered) because of germs. I preferred not to feed him from a large serving of food. So, we went downstairs to visit some of the other teachers, who he loves. When the kids were done with lunch, we prepared to go back up into his old class, but they told me one of the kids had thrown up at lunch. I wanted to scoop him up and leave right then, but I stayed calm. They put him into another classroom, and sent his best friend there to join him in playing. He had a great time!

When he was done, it was like a switch had been turned. He went from happy to wanting to go home in a second. He wouldn't talk to anyone, wouldn't give goodbye hugs, and wouldn't even say goodbye. I felt bad. But he had a great time up until then. These teachers are saints for letting me add to their classroom numbers, and then letting me watch while he plays.

That afternoon, I took Matthew to the Tracy Aviary with his cousins, Kyndra and Abby, and my Sister-in-Law, Andrea. We had a great time! It was COLD! But Matthew liked seeing the birds, and even more, he liked being outside and breathing fresh air, and running around with his cousins.

That day, Justin and I decided to go on an impromptu trip. We needed to get away, so we took advantage of Matthew's good counts, and we went to Vegas for the weekend. 3 nights and 4 days of desperately needed solace. We mostly hung around the hotel, but we did get to have dinner with Justin's step-brother and his wife. That was a lot of fun. And we saw one show. The Tournament of Kings at The Excalibur, which is the hotel where we stayed. The rest of the time, we just relaxed. It was wonderful. Matthew was in good spirits the whole time we were gone, which tells me he was still feeling well.

Today, he started the fifth of his six phases of chemotherapy. Interim Maintenance II. He will get Methotrexate via IV infusions, and it will increase in dosage for four doses, which are ten days apart. The doctor said that although he's had this high of a dose before, he's starting higher this time, and since the doses will continue to increase, he will end at a higher dose than he's had before. He's much more likely this time to have problematic side effects, such as mouth sores (they don't sound so bad, but I've heard they're terribly painful, and they often cause kids to boycott food to the point that they have to get feeding tubes put down their noses), low counts which can lead to infections, fevers, etc...

He will also get IV Vincristine at each of his four appointments, and he'll get Intrathecal (in the spine) Methotrexate twice (today, and in a month).

Then, he'll have a 17 day break, and move into Maintenance.

We're almost there, baby! 56 more days.