3/13/2008

Another busy week

Max is in the procedure room in clinic as I write this, having a bone marrow aspiration (BMA). BMA’s show if there are any cancerous cells in his bone marrow. He has to be anesthetized and then the doctor “punches” a needle into his back hip bones (ileac crest I think) bilaterally (both sides, left and right), sucks some marrow into a syringe, and then sends ‘em off to pathology. This time we’re also having some cells sent to Dr. Sholler in Vermont for her to check out.

Tuesday Max was in for an MRI and next week he’ll have his bone scan. We are really hoping for some good results – a little smaller spot on his spine would be nice, wouldn’t it? My hopes are that the last set of scans we had taken may have been a little too close to the radiation he received and were still showing enhancement (cells DYING!!) I can be optimistic as long as I don’t overdo it.

There seems to be a lot of really good energy in clinic today. It could also be that I just finished a huge cup o’ jo… nah.

Max is feeling considerably better this week and seems to be completely over his stomach bug. He’s also gained a kilo back and is up to 20.2kg. He’s having minimal nausea and is not throwing up. Yay!

Max was able to start back on chemo this week. Thank goodness. It’s been almost a month since we had to stop his oral cyclo. It sounds funny to want your kid ON chemo, but when the alternative is that the cancer may make a breakthrough – chemo is definitely a good friend. Due to the blood in his urine we have suspended the cyclo and started him on oral topotecan, low dose, daily, skip weekends. He’s had three doses and his nausea is very minimal – hope it stays that way!

Speaking of the blood in his urine, Dr. Roberts has ordered an ultrasound of the bladder to see if there any blood clots that may have been formed when he had the stomach bug. If there’s a clot that could explain why his urine is sometimes clear, sometimes red, sometimes has little clumps (little bits breaking away here and there). This would be the best scenario I believe. They might be able to flush his bladder and clear it out a bit. Second scenario we talked about is he could have bladder wall damage either caused by a viral infection (going back to his stomach bug) or caused by the cyclo chemo. To figure this out he would probably have to have a visit to the urologist where they would use a scope to look around in there and see how bad the damage is. It could be just the top layer, or it could through a few layers. The latter needing much more recovery time, possibly months.

In the meantime, his blood counts are awesome today!
WHT 2.8
HGB 9.5
PLT 126
ANC 1988 !!
Max and Dr. Roberts discussing the intricacies of fighter jets,
bombs and shooters therein - and which one is painted the coolest.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thinking about you guys!! You see what keeps me up at night!! It is 2am here and I am reading your post!!!

Love the new pics.. My daughter Baillie just stood there open mouthed in awe when I showed her the pics of the boys and Tony Hawk!!! Wow!!!!

take care and know we are thinking about you all!!

rhonda dudley

www.caringbridge.org/tn/sydneymarie

Anonymous said...

Thrilled Max's numbers are so good! Praying for clear scans!!
xoxolisa

Anonymous said...

I had no idea Max was having these tests. I pray for positive results and good news all the way around!

Much love, Nana

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