The biopsy on Max's tumor and bone marrow came back positive for Neuroblastoma, so the chemotherapy treatment started right away. (This is a treatable cancer.) His protocol (treatment schedule) is a 21 day cycle: 3 days of chemo, 18 days off, then start again. The 21 day cycle is the ideal schedule, but cannot be followed if Max is sick, has low blood counts, or has any sort of infection. We have to be flexible! During March/April Max will be admitted to the hospital for 45-60 days for a radiation treatment and stem cell replacement. Chemo will pick up again following that and will continue through Dec 2005. Hopefully Max's cancer will then be GONE!
Max responded well to the chemo and had no visible side effects. They are very proactive with anti-nausea meds. They seemed to work! Max ended up staying in the hospital a few days following the chemo because the pain the cancer was causing in his neck, back and legs was so great he literally could not move for over 36 hours. The pain team was working as fast as they could to keep up with the elevating pain, but it just took off. They ended up putting him on a morphine drip and finally got him to a point of comfort where he could roll over in the bed, then move about freely. A few days after the chemo completed his pain started going down (as the chemo stopped the cancer from growing and started shrinking it). Whew. He's now taking tylenol w/codine as needed.
We're finding that being out of the hospital is great - but much busier than we even expected. Every day we flush the tubes on Max's Hickman port (which is the catheter that was installed in his chest). Once per week we have to change the valves on his Hickman and the chest dressing. Mon-Tue-Wed he has to take a special medicine. For ten days following each chemo we (Andy & I) have to give Max an actual injection (shot) in the leg (this is not fun for any of us as you can guess). Twice per week Max visits the Clinic to get his blood counts and sometimes see the doctor. Thursday was our first clinic day. I figured we'd be out of there in 2-3 hours maximum. Wrong. Max's blood counts were really low and he needed a blood transfusion. We were there 8-1/2 hours. We were warned that this can happen! (be flexible) Max got through it just fine. Gee... when our next visit only lasts 5 hours I'm going to be thrilled!
Coming up this month: Max is going to be injected with some kind of radiation on Monday. Tues and Weds he'll have bonescans. Kind of like xrays, but Max's bones will transmit the rays to the machine. Any cancerous spots in his bones will be highlighted.
Next Chemotherapy: Wed-Thu-Fri of Thanksgiving week! Yes, we'll be in the hospital for the holiday (as long as his blood counts and everything else is a-ok). Small price to pay, really.
How are we doing? I know that's the question on everyone's lips. We're doing fine... as fine as any family can be when faced with a life threatening disease. I've told this to a few of my friends, but I'd like to share it with everyone: when you think about something like this happening to your child your mind plays the "what if?" game over and over, and you go through all kinds of scenarios and make yourself crazy. But now that I'm that mom with the child who has cancer, I've found that instead of doing "what if?" I think my mind has made this into almost a business plan. There are a series of things that have to be done in order to get Max cancer free. And that is the goal and the primary focus. There is no time for "what if?" and there's no place for it. It's as simple as that.
Thank you for your love, support and prayers. It's all working.
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