Sorry for the delay with this update. I’m sure you are all eager to know what has been going on for the past few days. Saturday was Jerek’s worse day yet. That was the first time he got sick. They had to give him medicine for stomach cramping as well as IV Zofran for the nausea/vomiting. It did eventually pass and Sunday was a better day.
The kids were able to visit again and got their Easter baskets. Baby girl is growing up so fast, and Colt is doing much better with the elevator. The doctor decided that the chemo drug he was supposed to get on Friday was not worth the risk at this time. The risks outweigh the benefits at this point in time so they are going to skip it this cycle and try to work it in in the next cycle. The doctors attempted to do his lumbar puncture yesterday in his room. They are testing his spinal fluid to make sure the leukemia is not present there. They don’t expect it to be, but it is still something they have to check.
While they are in there, they go ahead and put a small dose of chemo directly in the spinal fluid as a preventative. They were unsuccessful at it yesterday and had to send him to radiology today for it to be done by the radiologist. He also received the Daunorubicin and Vincristine today. These are the 2 chemo drugs he got last week. His back is sore tonight and he is pretty washed out. Hopefully he will be able to get some sleep tonight. He took his last dose of steroids this morning. He now gets 7 days off.
During this time his blood sugars should return to normal and he will hopefully get a couple days off of finger sticks and insulin shots. They wanted to also give him a third drug today, Rituxan. This one takes about 4 hours to run and many people have reactions to it. Since he was going down to radiology for his lumbar puncture today, they decided to wait and give this one tomorrow. Hopefully he will not have any negative reactions to it.
He did have to receive a platelet transfusion yesterday and today. This was simply due to the lumbar punctures. With any type of procedure, they will give him platelets if his are below 50. His platelet level is actually going up each day. The lowest his got were 17 and they are now up to 41. The doctors said that they expect his platelet level to go up, but didn’t expect it to happen so early. This is a good thing. His white cell count is all but zero now and his red count continues to drop as well. This is completely normal as the chemo kills both healthy and cancerous cells.
They have started him on an antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral in order to prevent infection. He also gargles salt water several times a day in order to prevent mouth sores. So far, all of the preventative measures are working. He has been down and is ready to go home. His spirits are starting to improve, and we are continuing to take it one day at a time.
P.S. - I apologize for the novel. I will try to stay on top of the posts a little more so they aren’t so long.
The kids were able to visit again and got their Easter baskets. Baby girl is growing up so fast, and Colt is doing much better with the elevator. The doctor decided that the chemo drug he was supposed to get on Friday was not worth the risk at this time. The risks outweigh the benefits at this point in time so they are going to skip it this cycle and try to work it in in the next cycle. The doctors attempted to do his lumbar puncture yesterday in his room. They are testing his spinal fluid to make sure the leukemia is not present there. They don’t expect it to be, but it is still something they have to check.
While they are in there, they go ahead and put a small dose of chemo directly in the spinal fluid as a preventative. They were unsuccessful at it yesterday and had to send him to radiology today for it to be done by the radiologist. He also received the Daunorubicin and Vincristine today. These are the 2 chemo drugs he got last week. His back is sore tonight and he is pretty washed out. Hopefully he will be able to get some sleep tonight. He took his last dose of steroids this morning. He now gets 7 days off.
During this time his blood sugars should return to normal and he will hopefully get a couple days off of finger sticks and insulin shots. They wanted to also give him a third drug today, Rituxan. This one takes about 4 hours to run and many people have reactions to it. Since he was going down to radiology for his lumbar puncture today, they decided to wait and give this one tomorrow. Hopefully he will not have any negative reactions to it.
He did have to receive a platelet transfusion yesterday and today. This was simply due to the lumbar punctures. With any type of procedure, they will give him platelets if his are below 50. His platelet level is actually going up each day. The lowest his got were 17 and they are now up to 41. The doctors said that they expect his platelet level to go up, but didn’t expect it to happen so early. This is a good thing. His white cell count is all but zero now and his red count continues to drop as well. This is completely normal as the chemo kills both healthy and cancerous cells.
They have started him on an antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral in order to prevent infection. He also gargles salt water several times a day in order to prevent mouth sores. So far, all of the preventative measures are working. He has been down and is ready to go home. His spirits are starting to improve, and we are continuing to take it one day at a time.
P.S. - I apologize for the novel. I will try to stay on top of the posts a little more so they aren’t so long.
